Out of the Ashes
by leiasky
Summary: Jack is left to pick up the pieces of his broken life after Sam and the Hammond disappear. Post SGU premier episode but there should be no spoilers here.
1. Teaser

**Title:** Out of the Ashes  
**Rating:** May be Adult in later chapters  
**Pairing:** Sam/Jack  
**Summary:** Jack is left to pick up the pieces of his broken life after Sam and the _Hammond_ disappear.

**Season**: Post series finale of Atlantis and premier of Stargate Universe.

**Notes**: There should be no spoilers for SGU here. It's a pretty long story, so dig in for a, hopefully, fun and entertaining ride.

Thanks to PolRobin on this site for the wonderful beta work!

**Out of the Ashes**

**TEASER**

_His mouth pressed soft, gentle kisses along her neck as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hummed in appreciation. The smooth column of her neck reverberated beneath his instantly arousing touch and sent a surge of possessive arousal straight to his groin. Slim, superbly talented fingers tugged gently at the short strands of his hair just the way he liked it and he found it difficult to hold back the answering groan poised at the tip of his lips._

_They clung to one another for another long minute and then he lifted his head to find her lids drooping low over those expressive blue eyes he loved so deeply._

"_Mmm," she sighed, her breath warm against his cheek. "I already miss this."_

_The way his mouth possessed hers, tongue demanding entrance, was enough of an answer for the both of them. He would miss her, too. Their tongues danced and warred for dominance for a long moment before they reluctantly pulled apart. She trailed her fingers down his neck, eyes sparkling and damn if he didn't want to pull that jumpsuit down her lean body and bend her over right then and there. _

"_I've got to go." She stepped away and touched the long range headset attached to her ear. "Captain, I'm ready."_

_A disembodied voice echoed through the little device. "Aye, Colonel."_

_Their eyes locked and a small smile curved the end of her mouth as she whispered, 'I love you', moments before the white light enveloped her body and beamed her away._

_His whispered response echoed through the suddenly empty room._

Jack O'Neill groaned as the shrill ring of the phone disturbed his sleep. One eye, then the other, popped open and he glared at the offending object a moment before casting a disgusted look at the clock sitting on Sam's bedside table.

"For cryin' out loud, it's not even five yet," Jack growled and reached out to pluck the phone from its cradle. If it was an emergency of some kind, they'd have called on his cell, so who in the hell could be calling this early in the morning?

He clicked on the receiver and groused, "This had better be one hell of an emergency."

"General O'Neill, sir."

There was something in the tone of those three words that had Jack wide awake and on his feet in an instant. "Davis. What's goin' on?"

"There's been an – incident, sir."

His stomach plummeted to his toes and he reached out to grasp the edge of the solid antique dresser. "What happened?" he asked quietly. His eyes slid slowly shut as he waited for the inevitable answer.

"_The Hammond_ has been destroyed, sir."

His jaw clenched tightly as he struggled to breathe through the incredible weight that had just settled on top of his chest. "I'll be right there."

"Actually, Sir," Davis hesitated and Jack sighed inwardly, waiting for yet more bad news. "The SGC is heading up the investigation in cooperation with Groom Lake. The _Sun Tzu_ is standing by to beam you to Colorado, Sir."

TBC

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Yes, its short, but isn't that what a teaser is supposed to be?


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes:** Thanks for the comments (I answer them all if I'm given the means to do so!) and I'm amazed at how many people have this on story alert. Hopefully, you'll enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing. This will likely be my last for a while as I've got some script deadlines I'm forcing myself to meet.

There will be a flashback in every chapter and they should be esaily recognizable in _italics_.

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**Chapter 1**

The conference room he'd seen every day for the better part of eight years bustled with an electrified air as airmen of varying ranks worked single-mindedly at their assigned stations. Sergeant Harriman thrust a folder into his hand the moment he materialized in the room further forcing Jack to concede the man must have eyes in the back of his head.

"What the hell happened?" Jack demanded and the silence descended throughout the room so quickly that one could have heard the smallest pin hit the carpeted floor.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack noticed Landry hurry out of his office.

"Jack, with me, please."

Jack didn't spare the rest of the room another glance as he followed the current head of the SGC into his not so very sound proof office.

"Hank, what the hell happened out there?" Jack demanded before the door had even clicked shut. Behind him, he noticed the occupants of the conference room quickly turn back to their work.

"We're questioning everyone right now but it appears-"

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Questioning whom?"

Landry indicated the folder Jack held with a nod of his head. Jack flipped it open and quickly scanned the page. He'd never before in his life read a preliminary briefing report so quickly.

"She had everyone transported off?" It was just like her to sacrifice herself for her people. He ground his teeth so tightly they began to hurt. Wonder where she'd learned that from?

Landry nodded solemnly. "Everyone but enough crew to help keep the primary systems operational."

Jack scanned the list of names on the sheet and then flipped the folder closed. "I want to speak to Captain Randall."

Landry nodded. "In a minute."

Jack clenched the folder tightly. "What else is going on?"

"We've got the _Sun Tzu_ on high alert. The _Apollo _is returning early from its diplomatic escort and we've sent word to the _Daedalus_ to get back as soon as possible."

"Is there any indication that there is an incoming threat to Earth?" Jack flipped open the folder again thinking he'd missed something.

"Not yet but you know a few different factions out there have been looking for a weapon strong enough to take on Earth."

"We haven't heard hide nor hair of the Lucian Alliance since their ships were blown to hell over Icarus." Jack felt a twinge of annoyance at the thought. They'd lost a lot of good people that day. And 80 plus were still trapped on a dilapidated Ancient ship with very little hope they would ever make it home. "There's no one else out there with enough balls to take us on right now."

"No one that we know of," Landry confirmed. "But that doesn't mean some new enemy hasn't popped up."

"They do have that annoying habit," Jack muttered.

"The Pentagon wants our alert status raised anyway – just in case," Landry continued.

Jack hadn't stopped by his office before being transported to the mountain but he'd been at his job long enough to know what the higher-ups probably thought of the surprise attack on their newest battle cruiser.

"World leaders are being notified as we speak."

Jack flipped open the folder again, smothered his annoyance and muttered, "That's my job."

"The President thought you should be here."

Their eyes met over the folder in Jack's hand, unspoken communication and understanding wordlessly passing between the two.

****

Jack scrubbed his hands over his face and heaved a huge sigh just as Daniel rushed into the room.

"Jack! I just heard! What can I do?"

"There's nothing any of us can do right now, Daniel." There was a defeated sound to his voice that he didn't even try to hide. Daniel's eyes narrowed but Jack couldn't find it in himself to care.

"There has to be something-"

"Daniel."

Predictably, the younger man stood his ground. "Jack."

"Daniel, enough." His patience had frayed long ago but he'd held it together, mostly, as he questioned the highest ranking officer who'd been beamed down to the nearest planet with the rest of the crew.

"It sounds like you've already given up." The accusation in Daniel's tone wasn't lost on Jack.

"There's pretty overwhelming evidence that the ship was destroyed with all remaining hands on board."

The wind instantly vanished from Daniel's sails and he sank into the chair opposite Jack's borrowed desk. Landry had left a while ago to speak with his people.

"What happened? Everyone's being pretty tight-lipped other than we're apparently on high alert because our latest and greatest ship has been blown out of the sky by some unidentifiable enemy."

"According to Captain Randall, they were checking out a lead on the stranded Icarus team, when they came under attack by an unidentified ship." Jack leaned back in his chair to stretch his long limbs but the motion didn't help the tension permanently tightening his muscles.

Daniel, to Jack's complete surprise, listened without saying a word.

"They tried to communicate, but the ship just opened fire. It was big, Randall said, real big." Jack didn't want to repeat what he'd been told, but it was strangely cathartic to talk to Daniel about it all. "The _Hammond_ was far more maneuverable, but the weapons eventually got through their shields before they could jump into hyperspace. They limped as quickly as they could to the closest planet with a Stargate and Sam beamed everyone she could off the ship."

Jack took a deep breath and steadied himself for his next words. "Just before they dialed earth, Randall and everyone else saw a ship explode in the upper atmosphere."

Daniel shook his head immediately. "But that doesn't mean it was Sam. She could have destroyed the other ship and-"

"Daniel."

Daniel struck Jack silent with a wave of his hand. "No Jack. It could be-"

"Don't you think I've hoped? She'd be back by now, or there would have been some word." The red phone rang and the two men glanced sharply at it. "I need to take this."

Daniel stood, discouraged. "Yeah."

Jack closed his eyes as Daniel left the office and pulled the phone off its cradle. "Yes Sir, I've got a preliminary report for you."

****

Jack stared at the photo of himself and Sam taken on one of their last trips up to the cabin. Before the shit had hit the fan with Atlantis and the Wraith, before she'd taken her shiny new ship out to escort an irritating Senator and geek genius to Icarus, before that mission had turned into search and rescue after the so called secret based had been attacked, before their lives had once again taken them in opposite directions.

The lake and large green trees served as a perfect natural backdrop for the photo. The fresh, crisp, clean air and even a multitude of mosquitoes were in natural, relaxing abundance. And she was sporting the biggest, widest grin he'd ever seen as he stood behind her, chin buried in her neck, and arms wrapped possessively around her slim waist.

She'd had a lot to be smiling about, and so did he for that matter, because, after numerous proposals and nearly a week at the cabin with just him for company and entertainment, she'd finally agreed to marry him.

_He could tell she was bored. Well, not so much bored, but that overactive brain of hers didn't have enough to think about. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her sunbathe on his deck clad only in the skimpiest of suits she'd insisted on wearing even though there was no one around for miles. _

_He sat in his comfortable chair beside her, a chilled bottle of beer in one hand and a fishing pole in another. He repeatedly cast his line and then reeled it in slowly, glancing often toward the unbelievably hot woman stretched out beside him._

_She was reading, or pretending to, since she hadn't turned the page in at least ten minutes._

"_So . . ." Jack began. "I've been thinking."_

"_Those are the most dangerous words you've ever uttered," came an immediate monotone response. It brought a smile to his lips anyway._

"_Yes, well, we should get married."_

_There was a pregnant pause and then she closed her book, not even checking what page she'd been on and slowly lifted her eyes to his._

"_What?"_

_Jack shrugged and lifted the bottle o his lips. "You heard me."_

_She rolled onto her side, facing him completely now. "No, I really think I didn't."_

"_Marry me. It's not a hard question to answer, Carter."_

_He could see a hint of amusement on her face. "Was it a question?"_

_Jack shrugged. "Not really."_

"_Passing comment, then?" Her tone was light, and the smile spreading slowly across her face lifted the uncertainty that had been weighing heavily on his chest since he'd mentioned the word. It'd been decades since he'd last uttered it and though he'd thought about it a lot in the last few years, he'd never asked her._

"_Couldn't get away with making it an order, could I?"_

_Sam tilted her head back and stretched teasing him to near distraction. "Not likely."_

_Jack cast his line and watched the little ball bobble on the surface of the water. Before he could twist the handle to roll in the line, her hand slid into his._

"_We're okay as we are, you know."_

_The assurance made him smile at the little ball bobbing in the gently rippling water. Of course they were okay. More than okay, really._

"_Jack?"_

_His eyes shifted and the weight returned, clenching so tightly he was afraid to breathe. "Yeah?" He really was too old for this kind of stress._

"_Were you asking me?"_

_He really was. "Yeah."_

"_Then don't you think you should pay attention when I give you my answer?"_

_Jack tried to nonchalantly reply to the teasing tone with one of his own. "I figured I'd be waiting for a few weeks, actually."_

_In the silence that followed, Jack figured she was either going to hit him or kiss him. Thankfully, she knew him well, even though he knew she was trying to put up an offended façade – unless that murderous look on her face was how she truly felt about the teasing comment really said in jest – mostly._

_The silence stretched on and the weight pressing in on his chest settled like a lead brick in his stomach. _

"_That was cold," she finally said, eyes firmly locked on his._

_His brain registered that she'd scooted closer and that she continued to do so, but that nagging worry in the back of his mind that he'd just messed this up wouldn't go away – until she'd climbed into his lap and draped her arms atop his shoulders._

_Jack winced. Yeah. It was. He should apologize. He opened his mouth to do just that as her hips shifted and settled her bikini-clad bottom tightly against his groin. He struggled to maintain focus as his body instantly responded to the smooth heat pressed so intimately against him._

"_Uh. Yeah. It was." Jack was impressed with himself. He'd gotten the words out, even if they'd been reduced to one syllable each._

"_Was what, Jack?" she purred as she leaned closer, her breath hot against his mouth._

"_Cold, Sam. Real . . ." A tremor raced down his spine that had nothing whatsoever to do with the weather. "Cold."_

_She rubbed her hips tightly against his and dropped a kiss to the corner of his mouth before climbing completely out of his lap._

_He stared at her unable to form a single coherent word. His body tingled from her touch and he was grateful he'd worn loose fitting pants._

"_Jack?"_

_He blinked and looked stupidly up the long, pale skin of her neverending legs to her perfectly proportioned torso, ample bosom illegally covered by a thin scrap of material, to finally settle on her beautiful, carefully-schooled, expressionless face._

"_Yeah?" he answered. One syllable again. He shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the growing tightness of his formerly lose pants and the smile spreading slowly across her lovely face._

"_The next time you decide to light that match, you'd better be prepared to douse the resulting fire."_

_Jack blinked and watched in stunned silence as she scooped her towel off the wooden dock and walked, hips swaying to some indiscernible tune, back toward the cabin._

_When he finally recovered control over his mouth, he leaned over the chair, fishing pole and beer forgotten and called, "Was that a yes?!"_

What followed was some of the most intense, passionate sex that he'd ever experienced – and would certainly never forget.

Jack resisted the urge to reach out and touch the photo. Instead, he leaned back in his very expensive chair and closed his eyes. He'd had a permanent headache since he'd been woken to that phone call every significant other of a serviceman or woman learned to dread.

They hadn't quite been listed as killed in action yet, but with the reports from the survivors all referencing the explosion they'd seen from the ground, Sam's status as MIA would likely soon be changed.

He hadn't called Mark yet. He wanted to wait and hope that Sam's unusual flair for getting herself and her team out of trouble would come through again. It hadn't so far and after a week of searching, he'd started to accept that she wouldn't be coming back.

A knock on his closed door startled him and he picked up the frame and quickly placed it back in its place on the antique wooden credenza behind his desk.

"Come," he said a bit too sharply to even his own ears. But his staff was used to him and if they took offense, he really didn't care.

"Sir?" Davis poked his head around the chestnut-hued wood. "They're ready."

"Wonderful," Jack stood, straightened his uniform jacket and picked up the folder with the latest reports. "Another fun day with the IOA demanding answers we don't have to give."

Davis nodded in understanding. "Yes, sir."

"Bastards don't even care about the lives lost and -," Jack swallowed, struggling to keep control over his own emotions. He brought them into check quickly enough though he was sure Davis had noticed. He would, as always, deal with those emotions in private. "- those left behind to deal with that loss." He snapped an additional report out of Davis' hand and flipped it open to read as they walked. "They just want a justification as to why their multi-billion dollar state of the art ship has been blown into itty bitty pieces."

"That's not right," Davis agreed and Jack couldn't bring himself to look at the man. The sympathy written all over his face would only inflame his temper even further – and Jack had a feeling the IOA was going to do that all on their very own today.

They stopped outside the conference room behind whose doors he'd conducted so many meetings with various International countries, the Joint Chiefs, the IOA, even the President of the United States. He stared at the ornate door with something akin to disgust before reaching for the handle. "Wish me luck."

"Luck, sir?"

"Yeah. That I don't lose my temper and commit homicide in there today."

Davis nodded, used to his boss' unique brand of humor. "Yes, sir. I'm glad they check us for firearms at the door."

Jack allowed a small smirk and swung open the door. He schooled a neutral expression onto his face as he was greeted by not only the head of the Joint Chiefs, the highest ranking members of the IOA whom he despised with every fiber of his being, but the President of the United States himself.

TBC


	3. Chapter 2

**Note: **Extra special thanks to PolRobin (she writes, too, check out her stuff!) for the beta'ing of this chapter. Having a former AF military as a beta works out really well to make sure I get things right. . .

This is the shortest chapter, but, probably the saddest/most hopeful of them all. Hope you enjoy.

The story is done so I'll probably try and get it all posted as a lead up to the SGU premier next Friday. There are 11 chapters and an epilogue.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

When Jack returned to his office he was wiped, literally and figuratively. He was glad Hayes had attended the briefing. It had kept Jack from reaching across the large table and squeezing the life out of the arrogant head of the IOA.

Jack sank into his chair with a loud groan and instantly pushed a restless hand through his already mussed hair. He loosened his tie, collar and flung his jacket onto the nearby couch.

By the time it was all said and done, the IOA were sufficiently intimidated by the supremely angry head of Homeworld Security and had backed down from their singular pursuit in getting to the bottom of just what kind of craft had been able to destroy the newest ship in Earth's space ready fleet.

But while Jack felt vindicated in his opposition of the IOA's conceited attitude, it still didn't change the fact that the _Hammond_ had been destroyed, and with it, the woman he loved.

The President decided that those still missing would be declared killed in action. It would provide their families with the support due them by their country and with at least some measure of closure. Jack hadn't argued, much, with the decision. He knew the President was right, even though his heart screamed that maybe he was wrong. One look from Hayes made it clear to Jack that the man understood his reluctance, but that it would be better to begin funeral arrangements sooner rather than later.

It was with this in mind that Jack stared at his phone now, wondering how in the hell he was going to tell Sam's brother that yet another member of his family had been killed in service to their country. Jack rubbed his face and flipped open the rolodex on his. It wouldn't do any more good to delay the inevitable. It was late in California but it was never late enough for a call like this. With a heavy heart, he picked up the phone.

The phone only rang twice before Jack closed his eyes and answered the greeting with a slow, deliberate note.

"Mark, its Jack."

"Jack?" the younger man's voice was instantly cautious.

There was a resounding silence on the other end of the line and Jack found himself holding the phone receiver so tightly he was fleetingly surprised it hadn't yet snapped in half.

"Mark. Yeah."

"She's gone, isn't she?" The sad resignation in the younger man's voice hit Jack square in the chest.

Jack clenched his jaw, desperate for the words to deny the question. There were none and he was forced to answer in the affirmative. "Yeah."

The voice on the other end was steely, but low. "How?"

"I don't want to do this over the phone. How soon can you get here?"

"I thought in matters like this, they came to you?" There was an edge to Mark's tone that Jack himself had not so successfully restrained for most of the day.

"The funeral's gonna be at Arlington."

"Of course it is."

Jack could hear the sneer of disapproval in Mark's tone.

"I'll send a car to pick you up at Dulles," Jack said to fill the painful silence.

Jack's gaze shot up at the soft knock on his door.

"We'll be on the next flight."

The line went dead and Jack slowly and with deliberate care set the phone back in its cradle and dropped his head into his hands.

_They settled into the comfortable first-class seats, a Major General in the Air Force had a few perks, and Sam immediately pulled the Sky Mall magazine out of the back of the chair in front of her._

_She never bought anything out of there but she looked at it every time. She even got copies sent to the house. Jack shook his head. He'd never really understand women._

"_I think he liked you."_

_Jack blinked and noticed she hadn't looked up from her perusal of the overpriced catalogue. _

"_Oh, I don't know about that." The weather in her brother's home had been decidedly chilly despite it being one of the hottest years on record in Southern California._

"_The kids loved you."_

_Jack couldn't hold back the smug smile. He'd forgotten what a joy kids could be and the little Carters took so much after their aunt that he couldn't help but be enamored of them. "Yeah."_

_He noticed her close the catalog and give him her full attention. "He was just being an overprotective brother."_

_Jack smirked. "Right, because weak little sis couldn't kick my ass from here to Netu if I so much as thought about treating you badly."_

_Sam chuckled and raised the arm rest between them._

"_He just didn't like that you were military."_

"_That was clear."_

"_And he's still a little bitter."_

"_About Dad?"_

_A solemn look passed across her face and he wished he had the ability to wipe it away. "Yeah." The expression was gone before he could comment and instead her eyes twinkled in the artificial light of the cabin. "I think he knew that I'd left Pete for you. So – he had a few pre-conceived issues to work out."_

_Jack was fine with never hearing that name ever again. "Ah."_

_Sam simply shrugged and it made him feel all kinds of better when she laced her fingers through his. "We had a long talk. Several of them, in fact."_

"_He did seem to warm up to me on the last day."_

_Sam leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Everyone has to warm up to you, Jack."_

_He laughed this time and turned his head so that her lips brushed his on their next pass. "And your brother managed to do it in one weekend. Gotta be a record."_

"_I'll say. What'd it take me? Six months?" Her eyes danced as she smiled at him and his heart did funny flips that he would absolutely never admit to another human soul._

"_Took me six minutes," he whispered and deepened the kiss into one that would have become decidedly pornographic if they hadn't been sitting in a very public place._

The incessant knocking drew him out of his thoughts and Jack scowled when his door opened and Daniel's disembodied head stretched around it.

"What?" Jack snapped until he realized it wasn't his assistant. "Oh, it's – what are you doing here?" Last he knew Daniel was still in Colorado.

"Hitched a ride on an Asgard transport beam," Daniel said with a shrug. "We're on leave for the next few weeks."

"Oh."

The rest of his body followed the head until Daniel stood uncomfortably in the spacious office. "So – got room for a guest for the next week or so?"

Jack stared at his friend. He should have known they'd send someone to stay with him. He didn't want a guest, really. He wanted to wallow in grief and the bottle for the rest of the night, but he wasn't about to admit that to Daniel.

Suddenly feeling a hundred years old, Jack swiped his discarded jacket off the couch and moved toward the door. Daniel would be a good excuse to slip out early. "Yeah."

****

The chairs were occupied and the large lawn was filled to capacity as the onlookers watched the rifles rise over the flag-covered casket.

Jack, Daniel, Cassandra and Teal'c sat in the front row with Mark Carter and his family. Behind them sat Mitchell, Vala, Landry and as many people from the SGC, Area 51 and various universities that had been influenced by the life, and death, of Colonel-Doctor Samantha Carter as could fit.

It was a funeral with full military honors, right down to the rider-less, horse-drawn caisson. The President and the Joint Chief's were in attendance as was, much to Jack's disgust, the head of the IOA.

Jack winced as each volley echoed around them. Twenty-one shots that Jack felt as deeply as if each one of them had struck him in the chest. He could look no where but forward and was grateful for the sunglasses that concealed his misty eyes from view. Those to each side of him had stood stoically composed until the bugle began to play. Mark's wife and children sobbed to one side of him, Cassandra on the other. Mark stood ramrod straight and blinked rapidly against the sunlight.

The flag was folded with reverence and honor and passed to the military chaplain – who, in turn, handed it to the Commander of the Honor Guard. Jack watched the pressure in his chest mounting, as the man stopped before him.

Jack squinted behind the dark sunglasses.

"On behalf of the President of the United States, the Department of the Air Force, and a grateful nation, we offer this flag for the faithful and dedicated service of Colonel Samantha Carter."

The Commander held out the flag and Jack stared numbly at it. It hadn't been planned this way.

"_It will be given to you and your family," Jack said slowly as the driver pulled up outside the house to take them to Arlington. They hadn't yet come to an agreement and Jack wasn't leaving until they did. _

"_It wouldn't be right." _

_Jack wondered why Mark was fighting him on this. He and Sam had easily decided she would be the one to receive her father's. Jack really needed Mark to do this. "You're her brother, Mark. It's to be given to the next of kin. That's you."_

"_Jack-"_

"_No, Mark. This discussion's over." He was spared a retort when Daniel walked in the door._

"_Guys, the car's here."_

_Jack straightened his cover, slid the dark sunglasses over his eyes and walked out without another word._

Jack glanced at Mark, whose gaze remained firmly forward, and exhaled through tightly clenched teeth. He reached white-gloved hands out to take the flag from the Commander and snapped a tight salute in respect. The immaculately dressed man returned the gesture and stepped back as the air around them vibrated with the sound of four jets flying low in the sky above them. As one pealed away from the formation and roared upward, signifying a missing man lost in battle, Jack felt the sharp sting of tears gratefully concealed behind his military issue sunglasses.

****

Major Andrew Maxwell trudged resolutely through the scorching desert carefully avoiding the numerous jagged chunks of metal jutting out of the sandy floor.

He squinted in the sunlight and wiped at the sweat dripping into his eyes. The dark stony mountains a good distance behind him provided sufficient protection from the heat of the twin-sun's rays, but they needed to move as much of the provisions from their decimated ship as they could before the suns set. It was easily a two hour walk one way and they'd been working non-stop since they'd landed. They were all exhausted and running on fumes, but his duty was to transport everything that wasn't nailed down, and even some that were, to their mountain camp. Work had to stop before the sun set and they took turns standing watch at the one and only entrance to their cave. Nightfall brought with it more dangers than risking the dehydration of moving heavy equipment during the rising heat of the day.

"Sir?" Lieutenant Stacey Gibbs breathed as she struggled to walk through the deep, shifting sand. Behind her, two young sergeants walked silently, their eyes watchful for any hidden enemy that the desert floor might reveal.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" Maxwell asked without a glance backward. He kept marching forward toward a large hunk of metal that slowly appeared on the horizon.

"Do you think we'll ever find the gate, sir?"

"I'm not entirely convinced there was ever one here, Lieutenant."

"But the cave paintings-"

Maxwell rolled his eyes but kept moving toward their destination. "Just prove that there was once life on this god-forsaken, sun-baked planet."

"The people probably all died out, huh?"

Maxwell stopped and settled a hard, determined gaze on the sweat-soaked woman. "The less talk the faster the walk, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

Movement by one of the many breaches in the hull of the large ship caught his eye and he stopped short. Gibbs stopped beside him and watched the rest of their crew pull out additional crates for transport to the caves.

"The sooner we get everything useable out of that hunk of metal we used to call home, the sooner we can work on trying to find a way back to Earth."

TBC

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Liked it? Hated it? Have a guess as to what's going to happen next? Leave a review and let me know:)


	4. Chapter 3

**Note:** Thanks for the great reviews and guesses as to what might happen next. I'm not as happy with this chapter as I am with the rest as I didn't want to be too overdramatic with the reveal. It's just - there, nothing special, and it probably brings down the chapter but I didn't want to re-write it.

The story is written, though there is one chapter and en epilogue that still needs to be beta'd, so I'll try and post every weekday until its done.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"It looks like old Native American wall art," Sergeant William Tiyu reverently touched one of the wall paintings closest to their crackling fire.

Maxwell didn't look up from his tin bowl – and the meager meal contained within it.

"How do you know?" Stacey Gibbs asked as she sat down with a soft groan.

"You're three-quarters Native American, aren't you, Sergeant?" Samantha Carter limped into their small domain, a fully loaded P-90 hanging across her chest. There was a blood-stained bandage around her leg as well as one around her shoulder.

"Yes, ma'am."

Maxwell arched his neck toward the entrance. "Nothing tonight?"

"Not yet." Sam glanced back at the entrance and the two men she'd left there to guard it. "They don't tend to come until really early in the morning, though, when their prey are so far into REM sleep that they can't wake up quickly enough to avoid the surprise attack."

Maxwell glanced down at a device sitting at his side. "And the sensors on our equipment are all over the place, its tough to get a reading on exactly where they are."

Sam glanced once more out the stone doorway she'd just walked through. "I'd love to get some more detailed readings on that nebula overhead, though. It's so close to the planet that the sky never truly gets dark."

"I'd love to have access to a lab to test the venom those creatures excrete through their claws," Doctor Brian Lieu commented as he scooped some beans into his tin bowl.

"It's paralyzingly painful," Maxwell said before taking a bite of his own food.

Sam glanced at her bandaged shoulder and unconsciously shifted her weight off her injured leg. They'd been surprised by these creatures once before. They'd buried one unlucky Lieutenant deep beneath the dusty surface of this planet, already. They couldn't afford to make any more mistakes. "Nothing like watching one of those things go after your people while you lay paralyzed on the ground, completely aware of what's going on around you."

"How's the wound, Colonel?" Lieu asked as he made motion to stand.

Sam waved him down. "It's fine. Painkillers are working like a charm."

Lieu raised an eyebrow and shot her a skeptical look that reminded her all too much of Janet Frasier. "Not hot? I'll need to check for infection in a few hours."

"One of the few things not ripped out of the hull during re-entry were the medical supplies, Captain." Sam settled gingerly on the dirt ground beside Maxwell. "You put them to good use. I'm fine. That venom either has antibacterial properties or your medicines are just that good."

"Gotta wonder how those creatures evolved here," Tiyu said absently, eyes still glued to the wall while he took intermittent spoonfuls of food. "Doesn't look like there's been people here for a long time."

"Maybe they eat each other," Stacey Gibbs offered with a shrug.

"They're not unlike some of the indigenous creatures found on Earth," Sam said with a wistful look in her eyes. Tiyu reminded her of Daniel – of home; a home they'd never see again if they didn't find a Stargate on this planet. "Just – bigger."

"I'll say," Gibbs said with more than a little fear in her eyes. "Those things are like gigantic dinosaurs."

"Velociraptors, actually," Tiyu commented absently but Sam knew he was right. They stood at least six feet tall, had tough, scaly skin and had claws as sharp as her bowie knife – and they could see as well in the dark as humans could during the day.

"Didn't go down easy, either." Maxwell muttered, tapping his bandaged thigh.

"Now that we've got everything salvageable out of the _Hammond_, we need to set up a rotation to look for a gate." Her eyes slowly swept around the fire. "We can't leave the equipment out all night so we'll have to carry it up to the highest peak tomorrow and see if we can get any naquadah readings."

"Provided we can get any of it to work properly," Maxwell muttered.

"The energy and EMP readings seem to fluctuate based on elevation," Sam said as she shifted her tired, aching muscles. "If there's some kind of large power source here, hopefully, we'll find it."

"Considering how quickly we fell out of the sky, whatever interfered with our instruments, wasn't exactly confined to just the surface," Maxwell added. "Hopefully, we didn't land on a big, planet-sized magnet."

"Our instruments would be a lot more messed up than they are now, if that was the case," Tiyu said as he looked around the dimly-lit room.

"At least there's plenty of sun. We shouldn't run out of power," Gibbs said as she fiddled with a hand-held device. The bar in the corner flashed green indicating a full charge.

"Right. Thankfully, whatever is causing the instruments to give inaccurate readings isn't messing with the solar batteries," Sam said with a nod.

There were a few minutes of silence as everyone ate their rationed portions. They'd salvaged what food they could from the ship, and it was a lot, but they'd have to portion it out if they wanted to last more than six months without a natural food source.

"Do you think they'll look for us?" Gibbs finally broke the silence, her eyes full of uncertainty.

Sam and Maxwell exchanged a look but it was Sam who answered. "I'm going to be perfectly honest with you Stacey. They may think the _Hammond_ was destroyed. I'm sure the crew could see the enemy ship's explosion from space. Our failure to return would only confirm that suspicion."

The younger woman's face fell. "So they all think we're dead."

_Sam hadn't been able to cry. She stood stoically at the service, her team flanking her in unwavering support. She could feel her brother's anger rolling off him in waves of disgust that he hadn't been granted clearance to know what had killed his father. He only knew that it had been the service, the military that he so abhorred, that had taken Jacob Carter's life._

_Even now, at home, with the guests filtering slowly out of the house, the tears just wouldn't come. Her brother, his family, and her team were the only ones left and she could feel her brother's disappointment in her choice of company. He'd never been too happy about choice of careers anyway._

_Like a ghost parted from its mortal body, Sam watched as her brother approached._

"_I think we're going to head out."_

"_Okay." She was surprised at how distant her answer sounded._

_Mark glanced back at the motley crew hovering just inside the front room. She could see the disapproval, laced now, with a certain amount of respect, in his expressive face._

"_I'll be fine, Mark. Go take care of your family." Sam offered a weak smile in the direction of her friends. "They'll be here for as long as I need them."_

"_Yeah." Mark kissed her on the cheek and in a flash of hugs and goodbyes, he and his family were gone._

_She shuffled into the kitchen, popped open a bottle and sank wearily onto the couch. Sam would have laughed at the way her boys instantly circled her. Daniel sat to one side, her CO on the other, Teal'c in the large armchair which only he could make look small._

"_Need anything?" Daniel asked._

"_A distraction?"_

_Jack, as she now always referred to him in her thoughts, raised his bottle, a small smirk on his face. "This is always a good distraction. Not so good the morning after, though."_

_Sam couldn't help but smile at his lame attempt at humor._

"_A game, maybe?"_

"_With booze?" Jack's eyebrows wiggled and Sam couldn't hold back the bubble of laughter that escaped._

"_I know we have plenty. You guys can crash here if you're too drunk to drive home."_

"_We will be," Jack said suspiciously quickly and Sam didn't feel the need to question him. Teal'c didn't drink and could easily take them home. She appreciated that they were willing to stay with her, even though the independent feminist in her chaffed at the idea._

"_What game are you in the mood for?" Daniel asked._

"_Not some science-y thing that we don't have a chance to win," Jack chimed in with a grin.._

"_Jack, you couldn't win at Go Fish."_

_Sam laughed at the indignant look on Jack's face and reached out to gently place a hand on his wrist. Time froze for a moment as they held one another's eyes as if there were no one else in the room. "Don't worry," Sam finally said, her voice soft, low, "I'll let you win." _

Sam's heart clenched tightly. She didn't want to think about what news of her death would do to Jack. Her hand hovered over her dog tags, and their extra passenger, hidden beneath her dirty, tattered clothing. "That's a strong possibility, yes."

"Well then we need to figure out a way to contact them or find a gate." Lieu said with grim determination.

"I might be able to fix one of the ATV's so we can explore greater distances," Gibbs said with a shrug. "It's not like the bridge is gonna need its coolant system controls."

"Get to work on that tomorrow, then," Sam said with a smile. "Just don't stay inside too long. What's left of the hull gets hot in the middle of the day."

****

"Somehow I knew you'd be up here," Daniel said as he rounded the old cabin and came to a stop beside the unmoving man.

"What part of _alone_ didn't you get, Daniel?" Jack said, not even attempting to be polite. He'd had enough of that in the last month.

"We were – concerned."

"I'm fine." He lied. He wasn't fine. He likely never would be. He took a swig of beer and balanced the bottle on his thigh.

"Up here alone?"

"Yes."

"You coming back?"

"I don't know." And he really didn't.

"Does the President?"

"Told him I'd be back when I was ready."

"He agreed to that?" The surprise in Daniel's voice would have amused him a month ago.

"It was either that or retire – which I may just do anyway."

"The program needs you, Jack."

"That's the thing, Daniel," Jack finally turned and looked at his friend. "It doesn't need me. And I really don't need – or want – it. Not anymore."

"Abandoning the program won't bring her back."

Jack downed the remainder of the bottle in one long swig and then stood. His whole body ached but Jack knew that was his own fault. Beer wasn't the healthiest of food groups. "You don't think I already know that?"

"I think you need to be reminded."

"Doesn't matter where I look, Daniel," Jack tossed the bottle into a open trash bin filled with others just like it. "Everywhere I look I'm reminded." He pulled open the door and walked into the cabin, under no illusion that Daniel wouldn't follow.

"Don't you think we're reminded, too?"

This whole situation was too cliché for Jack. He even knew what Daniel was going to say next and he certainly wasn't a mind reader.

"You aren't the only one who misses her, Jack."

Jack pulled two bottles out of the refrigerator, popped one open and shoved the other into Daniel's reluctant hand. "I can't think about how this is affecting anyone else, Daniel. It's overwhelming enough to deal with how much it hurts _me_."

"Cassie really needs you."

Jack closed his eyes. He should have known Daniel would use Cassie against him.

"I can't, Daniel. Not right now."

"Why?"

Jack didn't answer. It was selfish and he couldn't put it out there. Even he wasn't that cruel.

"Because she reminds you of what you've lost with Sam?"

Daniel had always been far too perceptive for his own good. "Go home, Daniel."

"I loved her too, you know."

He did know and that made it all the more painful to look at him, at Teal'c and Cassie and Cam and Vala.

"Go drown your sorrows in your leather princess, Daniel."

Daniel reacted as if he'd been slapped. "That was crude."

It was and Jack didn't really mean it the way it had come out but he didn't have the energy to explain. Sam would have gotten it. "Don't waste the time."

He and Sam had waited so long and in the end had been given precious few years together.

"We'll be waiting for you when you decide to come back. Call if you need anything," Daniel said as he walked out the door. And as much as Jack wanted to say vehemently that he would never be back, he knew he would. He couldn't in good conscience turn his back on his job. Maybe if he threw himself back into it, he could forget.

Jack drained his bottle in one very long gulp.

Fat chance of that. He would never forget.

Never.

****

"Damnit," Sam cursed as she fiddled with a complicated piece of machinery in the growing heat. She brushed her arm across her forehead and grimaced at the sweat soaked the sleeve of her jumpsuit.

"We should head back to the cave. It's getting hot," Stacey said her clothing equally as drenched. The suns overhead were sitting high in the sky and there were no clouds to block its harmful rays.

"I know," Sam grunted as she tugged on a few loose wires and got a small electrical charge to her fingers as a result. "I was hoping we could get this working before its insides melted."

"_I'm_ about to melt," Stacey said as she unzipped her jumpsuit and tied the arms around her waist. She had a small tank top underneath and it, too, was soaked.

Sam rubbed and flexed her burned fingers. She didn't expect everything to work as she'd planned, but she'd been hoping to at least have some wheels to transport some of their larger salvaged equipment.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get the ATV working," Stacey said with a frown. "I can probably re-build it but it'll take a while to scavenge all the parts."

"We'll make time to work on it. It may just not happen as quickly as we'd like," Sam said as she pushed herself to her feet.

"Yeah."

"Let's get out of here," Sam lifted a bit of machinery into her arms. She bit back a grimace as jagged metal cut into her side. "I can work on this back at the cave."

Sam activated her radio. "Maxwell, Rice, Lieu, we're headed back to the caves. We'll meet you outside." She didn't reply when the confirmations came in.

"You're drenched, Colonel," Stacey said as they began to maneuver their way out of the wrecked corridors.

"The sweat will keep me cool on the trek back to the caves." Sam gave Stacey a once-over. "You've got really tan skin. I'd look like a lobster by the time we got there."

"_I told you its cooler up here, not that you wouldn't burn!" Jack argued as she marched into the cabin._

"_Tell me you have aloe," Sam muttered as she flung open various cabinets looking for something to soothe her burned skin._

_Jack followed and every word out of his mouth annoyed her more. "Of course not! I don't come up here to sunbathe!"_

_Sam stopped her search and spun on him. "No, you come up here to fish! It's still outside. In. The. Sun!"_

_Jack glanced down at himself and threw out his arms. "Does it look like I need to get more sun?"_

_Sam pushed past him out of the bathroom and sat gingerly down on the bed. "God, I'm never going to get to sleep."_

_Jack held up a bottle and shook it. "I've got drugs for that."_

_Sam scowled at him, more annoyed, if she'd allow herself to admit it, with herself, than with him – and their ruined weekend. _

_Alone._

_At his cabin._

_She was too stubborn to admit – out loud, that she'd been the one that had fallen asleep. To his soothing voice. She didn't even remember what he'd been telling her. She was too mad._

_Sam leaned back and rolled until she was comfortable. "You have to sleep on the couch."_

_She felt the bed dip. "Sam . . ."_

"_I can't touch you." Yet another thing that annoyed her about this situation. They had a whole week to themselves and all she wanted to do was touch him. Everywhere. " It hurts too much."_

"_I can go get some aloe." His voice was soft, now, soothing her temper._

"_Good idea."_

"_Can I sleep in the bed if I do?"_

_Sam smiled despite her bad mood. But she didn't turn and look at him. That would have hurt too much. "Maybe."_

"_I'll hold you to that."_

_She closed her eyes as his lips lingered on her cheek. Giving in, she turned her head briefly and they slipped to her mouth. She almost rolled over onto her very burned back when his hand slid along the base of her neck and deepened the kiss. When they parted, he had a smug, satisfied grin on his face and she suddenly felt like a dreamy teenager having been kissed for the first time._

Sam squinted as she and Stacey exited the hunk of metal that once served as Earth's latest battle cruiser. Sam glanced back as the rest of her crew exited various holes in the hull.

"Ma'am?" Stacey stared at her with a confused look on her face.

Sam shook her head. "Yes? What? Sorry. I got lost in thought for a minute. What is it?"

Sam glanced down at her hand and was surprised to see it clutching her dog tags through the fabric of her jumpsuit. She dropped her hand and motioned for everyone to begin walking.

"Sergeant Tiyu and Tan think they've got the scanning and communications platform up and running. So we'll be able to broadcast for help and scan for any sign of the Stargate."

There was a hopeful look on Stacey's face that Sam wished she shared. It wouldn't be that easy. Especially with the fluctuating power and EM readings.

"But?" Sam prompted when the younger woman hesitated.

"Sergeant Tiyu doesn't think it can withstand the sun during the hottest part of the day."

Sam felt her stomach knot. She'd been right not to be too hopeful. "We'll talk about it when we get back."

TBC

* * *

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	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"You mean to tell me you haven't been able to locate _anything_? No energy signatures, debris, _nothing_?" Jack was so mad he knew his eyes would have disintegrated everyone at the table if he'd been cursed with supernatural powers.

Everyone in the room winced and sat just a little further back in their seats as Jack's eyes fell on each and every one sitting at the table. He'd been back for less than a day and already he had most of the junior staff near to peeing their pants. He'd have taken great pleasure over that in the past.

"You've read the reports, Jack," Daniel said with a calm that instantly grated on his nerves.

"Does anyone have any good news to give me, then?"

"That depends on your definition of good, Sir," Davis said and Jack didn't even bother trying to glare at the younger man. He wouldn't be intimidated. He'd worked with and around Jack for far too long.

"It's obviously not the same as yours or you'd have found the _Hammond_ _and_ Rush and his team." Jack stood. He was done with this meeting. Nothing good or informative had come of it. "We've lost far too many good people in the last month."

"Yes sir," coursed the group sitting around the table, minus Daniel.

"If there's nothing else, we're done." Jack walked briskly out the door, Daniel at his heels.

"Jack?"

He didn't stop walking which left Daniel to move a bit faster to catch up. "What is it, Daniel?"

"I wanted to talk to you." Daniel had a notebook filled to the brim with loose papers he couldn't seem to keep tame.

Jack stopped, turned and pinned Daniel to his spot with a tempered glare. "I just endured a two hour status report, Daniel. Through part of which, you were a keynote speaker."

"In private," Daniel said and Jack groaned.

Jack rolled his eyes and held open his office door. Once they'd settled into their respective chairs, Jack ran a hand through his hair and exhaled.

"What is it, Daniel?" He held up a hand before the younger man could speak. "And if you say 'I just want to know how you're doing,' I'm gonna hit you."

"Jack."

"Daniel." There was an unmistakable note of warning in his tone.

"Jack, hear me out."

Jack sighed. "I really don't want to discuss it. Hayes already made it a condition of my return to talk with the Pentagon's resident shrink and let me tell ya that was not anywhere near my list of fun things to do when I got back."

"He had clearance?"

Jack almost chuckled at the incredulous tone in Daniel's question.

"Yeah, apparently we've had a need for more shrinks. Imagine that." Jack rolled his eyes. "Knows McKenzie."

"Ahh, so he knew you and your avoidance tactics well."

Jack frowned. Apparently, so did Daniel. "Had a copy of my file, even."

"Ouch."

"Tell me about it."

Silence fell for a few moments before Daniel stood. "They're sending me back to Atlantis at the end of the week."

"I know, Daniel. I signed the order."

"Well, that means I'm making dinner." Daniel got up and moved toward the door. "So don't be late."

Jack opened his mouth to say something but Daniel anticipated it and made a quick exit. He almost, almost, regretted letting Daniel stay with him while he was in town. Almost. It had been good, after the initial awkwardness, to have a friend around. It made the mourning easier.

If such a thing could be called easy.

At least the private discussion didn't involve things that Jack didn't want to talk about. Jack had no doubt Daniel would save those for when he went home.

****

"There had to be indigenous life here at one point," Tiyu said absently as they filled containers of water from the underground spring they'd found a few days after crashing. They hadn't found its source but the well trodden path deep within the cave system was a clear indication that it had been used in the past.

"Those dinosaurs probably killed 'em all," Sergeant Tan grunted as he lifted his container. His sidearm bounced against his leg as he walked.

"Well, they have to eat, too," Tiyu lifted his own smaller burden. "And if there's no humanoid life, they have to eat something."

"There's nothing but dirt and sand as far as the eye can see," Tan muttered as they climbed the steep slope that would lead them back to the upper levels of the cavern.

"There had to have been a more temperate civilization at one time." Tiyu shifted the weight of the water from one arm to the other.

"A few thousand years ago, maybe."

"Maybe on another continent," Tiyu offered as they returned to their makeshift camp and deposited their load in the designated spot.

Sam motioned them over to where the rest of the team was sitting; seven people in all. "We need to recon further out and we'll be going in teams of three."

"So you think there might be someone out there, too?" Stacey regarded Sam with a hopeful look.

"I'm hoping a less blistering climate lies past the border of the furthest mountain range our patrols haven't gotten to yet," Sam said. "Maybe some clue as to where the inhabitants of these caves went. And maybe, if we're lucky, the location of the Stargate."

"Maybe this planet never had one." Sergeant Rice, gun sitting securely in his lap, said with a shrug.

"I refuse to accept that at this time, Sergeant," Sam said sternly. She wouldn't let her crew give up. Not yet.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I'll be in the first group, along with Rice and Tiyu. We'll head out tomorrow."

Maxwell opened his mouth immediately. "Ma'am, I must insist-"

Sam held up a hand that silenced all protest instantly. "You're leading the next group, Maxwell, that will consist of Tan and Lieu." She would never ask of her team something she wouldn't do herself.

****

Jack burrowed his head under the pillow to muffle the sound nagging noise that had woken him. He wasn't in the mood to get up anyway. It was Saturday and he'd spent the evening toasting his sudden freedom from Daniel, who had left earlier that morning for Atlantis.

Jack rolled onto his back and dropped heavy arms on top of the pillow. When the sound wouldn't end, he threw off the offending down-filled object and glared at the cell phone currently buzzing itself to the end of his nightstand.

"Oh hell, what is it now?" Jack reached for the phone and squinted at the number. He flipped it open and grunted into it. "What?"

"O'Neill."

Jack flopped back onto the bed. "Teal'c? Who gave you a cell phone?" before Teal'c could answer, Jack went on. "And when did you get back anyway?" Jack knew his phone was secure, as was his whole house and he also knew any phone given to Teal'c would have such tight military encryption, only Carter would have the chance of breaking it.

His throat constricted at the thought of Sam.

"I have returned for an undecided amount of time. I will be arriving in a few minutes."

It didn't take a genius of Sam's caliber to read between the lines. "You mean Daniel sent for you to come keep me company since he's back in California."

"I am - catching a beam as we speak, O'Neill."

Jack rolled his eyes. Teal'c had learned evasion techniques decades before he'd even been born. Jack just wasn't used to his friend using them on _him_.

Jack clicked the phone shut and climbed out of bed. He shot a glare at the clock and pulled on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers. But that was the extent to which he was going to dress up for a house guest at eight in the morning.

He walked down the long hallway just in time to see the familiar white light of an Asgard transport beam drop its cargo into his living room. He waved absently at the large Jaffa as he headed into the kitchen.

"Mornin' T."

"Good morning, O'Neill."

Jack listened as Teal'c moved toward the back of the house. Their friends all knew where the guest bedrooms were as they commandeered them on a regular basis when they were in town.

When Teal'c returned to the kitchen, Jack already had a mug of steaming coffee and the newspaper sprawled out before him on the table.

"So what brings ya by, T?"

"Daniel Jackson thought you could use some company."

"I don't need a babysitter, T."

"I do not believe I have ever been, or ever will be, your babysitter."

Jack winced and studied the newspaper with renewed interest. Teal'c couldn't have known the stab of pain that word caused. But the text blurred the more he tried to concentrate on reading it.

_They were in bed, their damp skin cooling in the mild breeze that came in through the open window. Her back was pressed against his chest while her head rested comfortably on his slowly numbing arm. She hadn't immediately laced the fingers of his free hand over her stomach this time and it had left them free to gently tease from thigh to shoulder. He grinned smugly at her sharp intake of breath when he buried his nose in her neck and placed gentle nips and kisses along the sensitive skin._

"_Mmm," she murmured and stretched, giving his mouth easier access._

"_Have you ever thought about having more kids?"_

_The question had come so far out of left field that Jack's mouth stilled instantly on her neck. He was silent for a good long time before he could even think about formulating a response._

"_Are you pregnant?"_

"_No, Jack," came her patient answer but he could tell she was waiting for more of a response._

"_What brought this up?" His restless fingers began tracing small patterns on her arm. He'd really never thought of having another kid. He'd done so spectacularly poorly at it the first time around. And he was far past the age to actually enjoy the terrible twos anyway. _

"_Nothing really," he heard Sam say, but his head was already buzzing with fear and, if he admitted it, a little anticipation. Why, he didn't know._

"_You don't bring anything up unless there's something important you want to say. So – what's goin' on, Sam?"_

"_I've thought about it off and on for a while now."_

"_Really?" He shouldn't be surprised. She'd discussed it with him before. But then – it wasn't about having kids with _him, _but another man._

"_You remember the conversation we had a few years ago?"_

_Yeah. He knew. It wasn't a thought he relished revisiting._

"_Oh. That one. Over – the ring." That ring had broken his heart. All he could do was stare at it and backpedal as fast as his overwhelmed emotions would allow. _

"_You wouldn't be here, you told me."_

_She was fishing and he knew it. He just wasn't sure yet if she was going to like what she caught. "Yeah."_

"_If things had been different. . ."_

"_Yeah."_

"_What exactly did that mean?"_

_He thought he knew the answer to that question but there were so many variables back then that interfered with what he really wanted But now? Now he really did have everything he wanted. Mostly. He struggled for a few silent moments to decide how best to discuss the topic._

"_You know that infinite realities thing?"_

_He felt a sheepish smile spread across his face when she stretched and looked back at him with shock in her eyes._

"_Yeah, yeah, I listen. Sometimes I even understand."_

_She settled back in his arms and drew his restless fingers into her own. "I know you do. Go on."_

"_Well, like every decision we make causes another fork in the road."_

_She smiled, her bright, expressive blue eyes watching him. "Yes."_

"_We've got so many forks I can't keep track of 'em anymore." He dropped his face into her neck and hugged her tight. "I wish we'd have gotten here sooner." They could have had a baby if they'd gotten to this place in their life earlier. Now, he really wasn't so sure._

_He could feel Sam exhale, her fingers tighten in his, and her slight, breathy whisper as the wind carried it out into the night._

"_Me too."_

"O'Neill?"

"You'd be a good one," Jack muttered and got up suddenly to put his mug on the counter. "I'm goin' back to bed. Make yourself at home."

Jack made his escape without looking back. There was no way Teal'c could know what he'd been thinking about, how that small comment about being a babysitter could bring back such heartbreaking memories. And he really didn't have any desire to talk about it – with anyone.

****

Sam squinted into the cloudless sky and wiped at the sweat on her neck. They'd climbed to the top of the mountain but it had taken a lot of time and energy to reach this place. Nearly 10 hours. She looked up at the sky. They wouldn't make it back before nightfall.

"We need to find a defensible position," she said as she crawled under a large rocky overhang to escape the heat of the mid-day sun. "We're not going to make it back to camp tonight."

"I'll take a look around and see if there are any sort of caves around here," Rice lifted his rifle and moved off across the rocky cliff.

"If there were inhabitants on this planet, they'd have carved dwellings into the other side away from the afternoon sun," Tiyu picked himself up from where he sat on a rock.

Sam had never been more proud to have her very own Daniel clone than she was at this moment. "Let's check the other side."

They all looked up at the rugged path they'd need to climb over to get to the top.

"It would take longer for us to go around so our only choice is to go up and over," Sam said echoing the thoughts of her team.

****

By the time they reached the top, they were panting with exhaustion. Their fingers were cracked and bleeding and they'd stumbled over enough rocks and had enough new bruises that would make defending themselves from an open position even more challenging. But the moment they were able to see down the other side of the mountain, small slivers of darkness could easily be seen sliced into the rock.

"Do you see that?" Tiyu pointed excitedly at one of them.

"I do."

Rice settled his rifle against his shoulder and turned to Sam. "Permission to investigate?"

"Granted," Sam said with an encouraging smile. "We're all going."

They excitedly climbed down the rocks until they stood in front of a dark sliver of an opening no taller than Sam and no wider than a few feet.

Tiyu stuck his head into the darkness. "These were carved this way on purpose."

"To keep the creatures out," Sam said, knowing her team had come to the same conclusion. "They're far too big to fit in here."

"Which will make it perfect for us," Tiyu said as he flipped on his flashlight and stepped into the darkness. Rice followed quickly and Sam rolled her eyes.

Sam came to a stop just inside where Rice's light was shining on a painting on the large inside wall. "Oh, fun, more cave paintings."

"Real informative ones this time," Tiyu said from deeper into the cave.

There was something in his voice that made Sam search him out. It wasn't difficult and soon she was standing beside him looking at a primitive painting of what looked like a Stargate partially encased in stone.

"That doesn't look like our gate," Rice said as he pointed his flashlight at the painting.

"Or the Atlantis gate," Tiyu said with a frown. "I wonder where it is?" Tiyu added as he shined his light across the large expanse of the wall.

"It looks very Ancient in design," Sam said. "Literally and figuratively."

"So that gate being here is probably too much to hope for?" Rice asked as he approached and added his light to the others.

"Even if we find it, there's no way of telling if it would work the same way ours does," Tiyu said as he brushed his fingers across the painted stone.

"We'll look around once everyone gets here," Sam said, eyes not leaving the painting.

"Rice, set up radio contact with Maxwell and have them plan to come out here tomorrow," Sam said, careful not to encourage any overly hopeful thoughts.

Sam clasped Tiyu on the shoulder and smiled. "Good find, Bill."

"Thank me when we find the actual gate, ma'am." Tiyu continued to examine the wall while Sam stared at the gate and prayed she'd know _how_ to dial earth if they found the strange-looking gate.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Sam met them at the entrance when they arrived with a hobbling Sergeant Tan being assisted by Stacey Gibbs.

"How bad is it?" Sam asked as she moved to help Stacey with her charge.

"Bit of a fever but otherwise, the cut isn't too deep," Lieu answered as he sat gratefully down on the cool rock.

"They were real aggressive last night," Maxwell said as he looked around their new camp. "At least it'll be tougher for them to get in here."

"I think that was the point."

"There's all kinds of caves and tunnels through the rock that we haven't had the chance to explore," Tiyu said with measured excitement and Sam was once again reminded of a younger Daniel.

"Now that everyone's here, we can do that," Sam said as she opened the bandage on Lieu's leg. She squinted at it and then favored him with a disapproving stare. "Isn't too deep?"

"Not really. It looks worse than it feels."

"Well, the venom from the creature's saliva does cause the wound to seal itself," Sam said with a wince as she helped the doctor re-bandage his leg.

"Yeah, they prefer fresh meat, you know," Rice said with a tighter grip on his gun. The sun was nearing the horizon and the creatures would be out soon. "They don't want you to die too quickly. Just paralyze you so you can't move when they come to eat you."

"What a horrible way to die," Stacey said as she repackaged the medical kit they'd brought with them.

"We haven't found any evidence of there being a back way into these caves, so we should be relatively safe," Sam said with a look around the room. "We'll just leave two on guard tonight. Everyone else get some rest."

****

A quick knock caused Jack to squint at his door. "What?"

When Daniel popped his head in, Jack raised his eyebrows.

"Daniel!" Jack crooned with as much suspicion as he could possibly fit in that one word. "What a surprise! How'd you get the time off?"

"Good to see you, too, Jack," Daniel said as he walked in and closed the door behind him.

"What is it, Daniel?" Jack gestured to the piles of paperwork stacked haphazardly all over his desk. "I've got a lot to deal with here what with the entire Icarus team missing and all."

When Daniel pulled out a plush chair and seated himself slowly into it, Jack knew he was in for an eye crossing discussion.

"And before you go into some long diatribe about-"

"They never found her, Jack."

Jack closed his mouth and his eyes for a long moment before opening them again. "My bed and I are well aware of that, Daniel."

"No, Jack. Listen." Daniel had moved to the end of his seat now but Jack could see flickers of red beginning to blur his vision.

"Daniel, now look." Jack resisted the urge to stand and use his intimidating size to get his point across. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. I _can't_. I've talked it to death." Jack snorted at the coincidence of the word. "Literally."

"Jack-"

"Daniel."

"Jack."

"Daniel." This time Jack did stand. "Damnit, get out."

To Jack's surprise Daniel stood and held his ground as well as his friend's intense glare. "They didn't find her! They found nothing! Don't you get it?!"

"Yeah, Daniel. We didn't even get a body to bury."

"I don't believe she's dead."

Jack stared dumbly at his friend for a long minute before his head and his heart wouldn't, couldn't, hear anymore. "Get. Out. Daniel."

"Not until you hear me out, Jack."

"We've been over this, Daniel."

"Every little bit of the _Hammond_ couldn't have burned up in the atmosphere. It _couldn't_."

"You're grasping at the straws I was sent to a shrink to let go of, Daniel." Jack sank wearily into his chair and ran a hand through his hair.

"No, please, Jack, listen to me. Just this once."

"If I had a dime for every time you asked . . ."

"Humor me?" There was a hopeful look in Daniel's eyes.

"There's absolutely nothing funny about this situation, Daniel."

"Sorry. But I need you to listen!"

Jack hit a number on his phone. When his assistant picked up the line, Jack stared at Daniel, making sure the younger man understood exactly what he was going to sacrifice by hearing him out.

"Hold my calls," Jack said and disconnected the line before his aide could respond. "This better be worth what little of my sanity is left, Daniel."

****

_Sam closed her eyes as his mouth traveled down the long expanse of her neck, leaving an electric tingle in its wake. Her fingers scraped through his hair, tugging gently at the short strands, as he pulled her impossibly closer._

_She moaned deeply as his hands brushed against her skin in all the right places, as long, dexterous fingers tugged and pinched in all her most sensitive spots._

"_God I'm going to miss this," Sam breathed when his mouth hit a particular spot that curled her toes._

_They were at the cabin again, lying on the grass beside the old wooden dock. He'd gotten frisky with her while fishing and she'd pulled him out of his chair in an attempt to get inside. They'd gotten as far as the grass._

_It was warm, the sun high overhead, but there was a soft breeze that instantly cooled their damp skin._

_She gasped when his fingers reached lower, probing, testing, teasing. She arched her hips encouragingly into his touch and pulled his mouth to hers. She'd had enough foreplay and showed him as much when she rolled him over and straddled his hips. In one smooth motion she'd settled comfortably in just the right spot and laughed softly when a harsh grunt escaped his mouth._

_Sam leaned down and kissed him before dropping her palms onto his chest and using the leverage of this position to take exactly the pleasure her body craved. He followed along willingly, hands never resting, tugging, pulling at her hips until he was panting as hard as she._

_Only at the end did she relinquish control and let him pin her back to the grass. She wrapped her legs tightly around him and led the way to a deeply satisfying and highly memorable end. _

"Colonel!" Tiyu scampered to the top of the mountain where Sam sat, staring into the sandy nothingness.

"What is it, Sergeant?" Sam breathed, the tingling memory of their last day together fading with each beat of her heart.

"We found it!"

Sam's head slowly swiveled to stare at the approaching man.

"You – found it?" Sam stood immediately. "Here?"

"It's buried in the rock but - yes!"

"Of course it is," Sam said, her heart racing at the thought. "In the wall. Like the painting?"

Tiyu nodded with more enthusiasm than she'd seen in the weeks they'd been stranded. "Just like in the painting."

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Sam smiled her eyes bright. "Let's see if we can get ourselves off this sun-baked rock."

****

Jack sat silently in his chair as Daniel fell silent. He could see the expectant look on the younger man's face.

"Are you sure there is even this remote possibility?" Jack found himself asking.

"Yes, Jack."

"The Joint Chiefs aren't going to authorize a search without every _T_ crossed and every _I_ dotted on this one, Daniel." Jack knew politics all too well. The IOA would have kittens over a cost expenditure of any projected size being authorized on something there was ample proof didn't exist.

"I know you haven't been in the field in a few years, Jack but-"

Jack held up both hands, silencing Daniel immediately. He knew what Daniel was going to say. He'd known the man for far too long. "We don't leave our people behind."

"So . . ."

"It'll get done if I have to put together a team of volunteers myself."

There was a hint of hope in the smile on Daniel's face that Jack just didn't, couldn't, let himself feel.

"You'd better be right about this Daniel."

"I am, Jack. I know it."

Despite his best effort to suppress it, a tiny spark of hope began to coil itself around his heart.

****

"We have all the equipment we need," Tiyu said as Sam followed him down into a very deep, dark section of the cavern.

She looked around and the crumbling rock and grimaced. "How stable is the surrounding stone?"

"Not very," Maxwell said as he walked out of a tunnel still cast in darkness.

"So we can try and get the gate unburied enough to dial out and risk collapsing the entire room in on top of us?" Sam asked, the hope that had welled up in her chest sinking like a lead stone into her gut.

"It's a risk . . ."

"One we have to be willing to take if we're gonna get off this planet-sized sandbox," Tan said, nervously fingering the weapon he carried.

"I don't remember _my_ sandbox coming with prehistoric animals that wanted to eat you," Lieu muttered as he stared at the piece of the gate uncovered by rock.

"How did it get like this anyway?" Stacey asked.

"Who knows how long ago this planet was actually inhabited by a species intelligent enough to use the Stargate," Sam said as she reached out to touch the unfamiliar glyph. "Earthquakes or simple continental drift could have buried the gate."

"Or the people who used this gate buried it in the stone to keep it upright?" Tiyu offered as he knelt on the ground and dug at the loose sand. "We haven't found any sort of platform here."

"Did you find a cover stone of any kind? Or a dialing device?" Sam asked as she began to pick at the stone surrounding what little of the gate they could see.

"Not yet," Tiyu answered with a frown.

"It's all right," Sam encouraged. "We've found it. Now we just have to uncover and use it without burying it or ourselves under tons rock and debris."

****

"Daniel, I've been dealing with these jerks for years, there's nothing you can do or say that is going to make them change their minds," Jack said as he faced an irate Daniel Jackson. He was feeling rather irate himself, but he'd already taken out his frustration on the IOA.

"Why do they have to be in charge anyway?"

"Because the Stargate program is an International . . ."

"Spare me the party line, Jack."

" . . . conglomeration of countries all financing various portions of the program." Jack glared at Daniel. "My request was heard and debated at length. I knew it was a long shot and so did you."

"So – plan B?"' Daniel asked and Jack couldn't help but grin.

"There's always a plan B, Dannyboy."

"Well let's get on it then."

Jack shook his head. Daniel could be so dense. "Already in motion, Daniel. I handed in my resignation this morning."

****

Sam ached. Her body, her bones, her skin was slick with sweat and she was exhausted. She looked around at the grim determination etched into the faces of her crew. They'd been working tirelessly to chisel the stone away from the gate and they'd made good, if not slow, progress.

The dusk kicked up in the cavern by their work caused significant delays when they couldn't breathe. She hadn't been happy to force them, or herself, to leave the cavern and allow the dust to settle before going back to work.

There was plenty of water in a cavern below and they used it to fashion masks over their faces to keep out the worst of the dust.

"I hurt in places I didn't know existed," Stacey settled gingerly onto the ground and leaned back against the stone wall.

Sam could empathize and she was a good ten years older than Stacey.

"What I wouldn't give for a nice, hot shower, and Matt to wash my back for me."

The wistful look on the younger woman's face made Sam's heart thud sharply in her chest. Yes, what she wouldn't give to sit in a hot tub and let Jack massage away the aches in her body.

"_I'll repay this, promise."_

_His voice was muffled by the pillow he'd buried his face into and Sam could only grin from her perch above him. She flexed her fingers and then dug them back into his shoulders as she attempted to massage the tension out of them._

"_You've got a really tight knot here," Sam said as she concentrated on working it out of his shoulder._

"_That one's Coolidge."_

_Sam rolled her eyes to keep from chuckling out loud. Her hand slid below his shoulder blade and found another. "And this one?"_

"_That'd be the Russian President."_

_Sam didn't bother to respond. She pressed her palms flat against his back and pushed up eliciting a deep moan she could feel through his back and into her hands._

"_God, that's good."_

_Her fingers danced across his neck, rubbing gentle circles, until she leaned down and kissed his cheek._

"_How's that?"_

"_You've reduced me to a puddle."_

_Sam smiled down at him and when he turned his head to look up at her, she pressed a kiss to his mouth._

_She wasn't sure if she'd groaned into his kiss or if he had but when he rolled onto his back beneath her and pulled her down into his arms, she didn't care._

_Only when they had to break apart for air did she lean back and smirk at him._

"_I think I missed a spot." She rubbed suggestively against him and draped a leg over his hip to draw him closer._

_The answering twinkle in his eyes told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking._

"_Took the words right out of my mouth," he drawled and together they proceeded to work the tension out of every stiff muscle her hands came across._

Stacey's voice intruded on her thoughts. "I really miss him."

Sam felt an answering sigh slip past her lips before she could stop it. "I know what you mean."

Sam winced inwardly when Stacey's head lolled in her direction. "You have a guy back home?"

Sam chuckled briefly. "That's not so unbelievable, is it?"

Stacey's face crinkled in horror at the perceived insult to her commanding officer but Sam raised a dirty hand to placate her.

"No, its okay. It's not something I really talk about. We're both very private people."

"Is it okay if I do, then?" Stacey asked with an uncertain tinge to her voice.

"Absolutely." It would do them both good to talk about home.

"He's not part of the program so it can be a little - challenging."

Sam gave the younger woman an encouraging smile.

"It was tough at first, because he really wanted to know about everything I did, but it got easier, and we settled into a routine." Stacey turned to Sam, her eyes full of love at the memory. "It just – works if ya love each other, y'know?"

Sam nodded, remembering a time in her own life where she'd gone through the exact same thing with a man who had not been a member of the program. Only it hadn't worked out for her like it had for Stacey. "I do."

"Is your guy part of the program?"

Sam allowed a small smile at the thought of Jack. "Yeah."

"So he'll know what happened to us?"

Sam's fingers twined nervously together on her lap. "It won't make it any easier for him." In fact, she knew it would make things a lot tougher.

"I guess not. Sometimes I wish I could tell Matt what we do. But I figure, if I die in service, it won't matter what I was doing, only that I'm gone."

"It all matters, Stacey," Sam said, turning toward the younger woman. "Everyone contributes to the safety and security of those we hold most dear even if those people never realize it."

"Yeah, I guess."

Sam reached over, squeezed Stacey's hand and gave her an encouraging smile. "We'll get back to them."

"I hope so."

TBC

* * *

Liked it? Hated it? Have a guess as to what's going to happen next? Leave a review and let me know!


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Jack couldn't stop the grin that slid across his face at Daniel's reaction to his news.

"You _what_?"

"The president didn't accept it, of course," Jack rolled his eyes at Daniel's dumfounded expression.

"I really wish you wouldn't do that?"

"What?"

Daniel's hands gesticulated like Jack should have known what the man was thinking. He did. He just wanted to give his friend a hard time.

"There's very little fun in my life nowadays, Daniel."

"So you have to have some at my expense?"

Daniel was pacing now and Jack simply crossed his arms over his chest and watched the agitation grow.

"Hayes gave me the _Daedalus_."

"Really, Jack, aren't you too old for these kind of jok-" Daniel trailed off as the implication of Jack's words set in. "He – what?"

"As a condition of my continued employment – or rather, my continued good behavior since no one actually _leaves_ the military."

A bushy eyebrow rose high over Daniel's forehead. "Condition?"

"We've got a month before I have to be back. And I've got command of the _Daedalus_ for that month."

"Bet Caldwell wasn't too happy about that."

"Not at first." Jack was being deliberately coy and he knew Daniel would pick up on it sooner or later.

"Jack."

Sooner was almost preferable to later in Jack's book.

"Daniel."

"Jack."

He managed the most vacant look as he could. "Daniel."

The hands started gesticulating again and Jack couldn't help but grin. "Stop that!"

"What?"

"Being evasive."

"Good to know I haven't lost it over the years." Now he was being smug. He knew it annoyed Daniel and, if he was honest with himself, that's why he usually did it.

"What brought him around?"

The smirk vanished instantly and Jack's expression turned serious. "I told him why I was taking command of his ship."

"To get Sam back?"

Jack shrugged as if it was the only explanation needed to explain why a hard-ass Colonel had no trouble giving over his command to a man who'd flown a desk for the better part of 4 years. "He has a crush."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "What man doesn't have a crush on Sam." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, it isn't just alien men that she attracts."

"Doesn't that annoy you?"

Jack had to grin. It used to but he'd gotten over it pretty quickly. "I'm the one she climbed into bed with at night, what do you think?"

Daniel raised his hands. "Ok, no more. Don't tell me any more."

Jack touched a control on his desk. "_Daedalus_, we're ready."

Daniel's eyes widened as the white beam enveloped them.

"I haven't even packed!"

****

By the time Daniel and Jack made it to the bridge, clad in familiar black BDU's, the bridge was a buzz with activity.

"You could have warned me," Daniel whined.

"And miss that oh-so-fun look on your face?" Jack quipped with a grin as they came to a stop in front of Caldwell.

Caldwell stood from the command chair and saluted Jack. "She's all yours, General."

"Your people all briefed?" Jack asked, eyes casing the room.

"Yes, sir. They're all perfectly aware this is a voluntary mission. In fact, half the SGC wanted to come when Landry made the announcement."

Jack felt his chest swell with pride. Sam had more than earned the respect of these people.

"Then let's get out to their last known position and see if we can find that needle."

****

They all stood, in varying degrees of filth, staring at the unusual Stargate now only partially embedded in the wall. It contained 36 unrecognizable flourishes that Sam couldn't even begin to identify.

"How do we dial it?" Lieu asked, staring up at the now uncovered face of the gate.

"We didn't find a DHD." Stacey said, looking around the dirt, dust and stone-filled room.

"How did we get to a location that uses a different kind of Stargate anyway? Are we in another galaxy?" Tiyu asked, squinting at the gate.

They all looked to Sam to provide the answer.

"From the _Hammond's_ last known location, we'd need a wormhole drive to send us so quickly into another galaxy – or some other form of technology we haven't discovered yet," Sam said. But she couldn't deny that these were symbols that she'd never seen before.

"So we shouldn't have been knocked _out _of the galaxy then_?_" Stacey asked.

"I don't know, Stacey," Sam admitted with a sigh. "I've never seen a design like this but if we are in another galaxy, it would make sense that the Stargate would look different. The design of the Pegasus gates are distinctly different."

"And the Pegasus gate needed a lot of power to dial home," Stacey said with a frown. "What if this gate needs that kind of power?"

"We haven't found any kind of power source," Tiyu said as he shook his hand held scanner. "Though, it's not easy to get readings of any kind on this planet."

"It's possible the strong electromagnetic charge is masking some larger source of power that we just haven't yet been able to pinpoint," Sam said as she glanced down at her own scanner.

"Can we manually dial it?" Maxwell asked no one in particular.

"I don't know," Sam said as she stepped closer to the gate and inspected the chevrons. "Maybe this is an early incarnation of gate design and was abandoned for some reason."

Sam glanced over at her XO. "I need to get to my quarters on the _Hammond_."

"Why?" Maxwell asked with narrowed eyes.

"There is an early copy of the dialing protocols they were using on Icarus saved on my personal computer." Sam chuckled to herself. "Daniel loaded it one day. He wanted me to take a look at it to see if I could optimize the efficiency." Sam shrugged. "I never had the time. There's also a copy of the dialing protocol used on Atlantis and Earth stored there. I can try and use one of those programs to get this gate to dial." Sam glanced at the gate again.

"Colonel, there wasn't any way to get back into the crew quarters. They were all crushed in the impact," Captain Lieu said.

Sam knew he was right. They hadn't even tried to get back there to make sure everyone had gotten off when she'd ordered them to abandon the ship. "We need to try."

"Can't you write the program from scratch?" Stacy asked.

"I can try, but it will go a lot faster if I have a base program to work from."

"Then it looks like we're going back." Maxwell said. He exchanged a look with Sam. "All of us."

"Negative," Sam said instantly. "We need someone here to watch base camp."

"Colonel, with all due respect. This is going to be a several day trip, and with those creatures out there, we're going to need every gun we've got."

Sam thought for a moment and then nodded. "And we're going to have to search through the ship at night so we don't fry when the sun comes up. You're right. We'll head out at first light." She looked around the cavern. "I don't think those creatures can get in here anyway. Our supplies should be safe but let's lock them down tight."

****

Jack paced behind the command chair and looked out the forward viewscreen with growing agitation.

"Daniel, we need to pick a direction and just go."

Daniel looked up from the terminal he'd had his nose buried in for the better part of two hours. "Jack, if we don't pick the right one . . ."

"We're looking for a needle in a haystack, Daniel, a really, really _big_ haystack. How do you narrow those odds?"

Daniel turned in his seat. "Well, if we want to go by the assumption that the_ Hammond_ wasn't destroyed but was damaged when trying to open a hyperspace window, then we can extrapolate the data provided to us by those on the ground and guess -"

"A _direction_, Daniel."

Daniel pointed out the viewscreen. There was a pink nebula out in the distance that splashed the darkness of space with rays of dim pastel color. "That way."

Jack glanced at Caldwell who nodded and issued the order.

"Sensors at maximum. I want to know if there's any Earth based signature out there, no matter how faint."

****

They tugged at the scraps of metal that used to be pristinely polished corridors that blocked their way.

"I don't know how we're going to get through all this," Rice said as he tugged with thick-gloved hands at the un-moveable metal.

"Maybe I can jerry-rig the systems together and get something out of the main computer." William Tiyu turned to Sam. "There was a backup, right?"

"It's in the main system, yes, if you can get it working," Sam confirmed with a scowl at the unmoving metal. "William take Tan and Lieu with you and see if you can get anything."

'What about you?" Lieu asked.

Sam glanced at her watch in the low light. "We're going to keep trying to get to my quarters."

They moved away and Sam called, "And be careful. Those things may try and get in here and come after us."

Sam glanced at Rice and then down at the large bag he'd carried all the way from the gate. "Have a blow torch in your bag of tricks?"

"A small one, yes, ma'am. Hopefully, there'll be enough fuel left."

"Well get it out, lets burn through these hulls as quickly as we can." Sam glanced back at the jagged corridor behind her, "and make the holes just large enough for a man to fit through. I don't want to take any chances."

Sam glanced back at Maxwell and Stacey, who held their guns and their lights back toward the way they'd come.

They moved at a fairly quick pace through the ship. There was minimal conversation as Sam kept an ear behind them and an eye ahead.

Every so often she would touch a piece of the hull, or wince while the torch cut through the metal. She remembered another time when she walked through the shiny new ship as it prepared for its shakedown launch.

"_Good work here, Carter," Jack said from his place at her side as they walked down the corridors of the newly commissioned General Hammond. "He'd have hated it."_

_Sam chuckled and blinked away the sudden moistness in her eyes. "Yeah. He probably would have."_

"_Was never one for pomp and ceremony and naming a whole ship after him, well that was really overdoing it." Jack kept his gaze ahead but Sam knew he was, at least in part, joking. George Hammond deserved this honor and yet it felt so small a remembrance for the great man they had known. Jack grinned sidelong at her. "Take better care of this one than the last, huh?"_

_She groaned inwardly. "How many times am I going to have to apologize for blowing up the O'Neill?" The latest and greatest Asgard ship to come off their advanced assembly line hadn't made it more than a day in her service._

_She could see the twinkle in his eyes as they rounded a corner. "Oh, for the rest of your life."_

_Sam sighed dramatically as they reached their destination. The conference room doors were closed and she stood aside to let him precede her._

"_After you, sir," Sam said with a smile._

_Jack simply shook his head and Sam could easily read his mind. He both loved and hated that word but now, after they'd gotten past the regs that had kept them apart for so long, she could use it with a fondness he'd never appreciate, except maybe when she uttered it in bed._

_They entered the conference room together, service dress tightly starched and ironed, and posed professionally in front of the plaque bearing the name of their former, much loved, and very missed, commanding officer._

The light from the flame winked out just before the burned edges met. Rice stowed the tool in his bag, leaned down and delivered several well-placed kicks until the metal bent enough for them to get through.

Once they'd crawled through, the light from their flashlights arched every which way, until Stacey turned to Sam. "Nice guess."

"I've got a good sense of direction," Sam winked in reply.

"Even through all the twisted metal," Maxwell walked further into the room. "I'm impressed."

"Well, I did help design the first X303," Sam said with a grin as she looked around the decimated room. "The computer was probably on my desk when the ship went down."

"Your desk is in several pieces," Maxwell quipped as he moved toward a few broken pieces of sturdy, heat-formed plastic.

Stacey knelt down to search under a few other pieces and then snatched her hand back when she cut it on a shard of glass. "Ouch!"

Sam hurried over to her and checked out the wound, but it was minor. She bent down and lifted the crushed frame from beneath a piece of jagged metal hull. She stared at it for a long moment before she slid the photo out and set the frame back down on the floor. She turned to Stacey. "You okay?"

"It's just a small cut, I'll be fine." Stacey cocked her head at the photo. "That your guy?"

Before Sam had a chance to answer, Maxwell held up a thin book encased in rubber. "Found it."

Sam took netbook out of his hand and depressed a button on the side. "Now let's hope the constant EMP field doesn't scramble the memory."

When the cracked screen lit up Sam felt some of the tension lift from her shoulders. She scanned through folders before she stopped and smiled at the programming language that scrolled across the screen. "It's here. Let's get back to the others."

Maxwell nodded and activated his radio to let the other team know they were coming.

****

By the time the sun had risen, Sam had led her team back to the first set of caves they'd found after they'd crashed. They rested, replenished their supplies and then continued the day long march back to their more permanent campsite – and the gate.

"I wonder why we haven't seen any of the dinos?" Rice said as he munched on an energy bar.

They were all sitting just inside their new cave, eating. The sun was nearing the horizon and darkness had just begun to fall.

"Maybe they couldn't reach us in the ship?" Stacey offered with a hopeful look.

"Some of those holes were easily large enough for them to fit through," Maxwell commented as he took a bite of his own energy bar.

"There must be something about the ship that scares them," Tiyu commented around a mouthful of food.

"There is a bit of a radiation leak. Not harmful to us but maybe it is to them? The way the EM field is affecting the ship itself is more likely," Sam said as she leaned against the wall. "The ship's emergency beacon is still broadcasting."

"For all the good it's done us so far," Stacey muttered.

"It's a big galaxy out there, it's not surprising no one's found us," Sam said with an understanding smile. She'd been on plenty of missions where rescue never came and they'd had to use their own wits to get them home. But then, she'd been on plenty where she and her team escaped by the skin of their teeth.

A loud, wailing cry echoed around them and they immediately reached for their weapons and got to their feet.

"What was that?" Stacey's eyes were wide and full of fear.

"Sounded like a battle cry to me," Maxwell's eyes focused on the entrance to their cave.

"They can rush us all they want," Rice said with a little too much satisfaction for Sam's comfort. "The entrance is too narrow. We'll pick 'em off when they try and figure out how to get in here after us."

"Let's keep our eyes open people," Sam said as she slung her pack over her back and kept her grip tight on her weapon. "We don't want them to get in here. They could presumably claw at the opening to try and widen the entryway and then we'd find ourselves in a far less defensible position."

"That's - encouraging," Stacey muttered.

"They aren't that smart," Rice said with a certainty Sam didn't in any way feel.

Sam turned to him. "You'd be surprised what desperation will push you to do."

"They're just dumb animals," Rice challenged with a shrug, but Sam noticed his eyes hadn't moved from their narrow entryway.

Sam motioned for Tiyu, Gibbs and Maxwell to join her. "Rice, Tan, Lieu, you're on first watch. The rest of us will go down into the lower caves to get some rest. We'll relieve you in four hours."

****

Sam crept out of her sleeping bag and made her way slowly down into the cavern where they'd uncovered the gate. She flipped on the lights they'd positioned around the room and then took a peek at the generator powering them. It was little more than half charged. They'd have to take it out in the morning to soak up some solar energy.

She flipped on her laptop and began to work. Her fingers flew across the keys as she concentrated on trying to find a way to dial the gate to get back to an inhabited planet that could dial earth. For all she knew, this gate only dialed one location and they wouldn't have enough power to activate it.

Sam started as a steady voice from behind her boomed deeply, "I figured you'd be down here."

Sam grinned at the cracked screen as Maxwell settled down onto the dirt beside her, gun cradled in his lap.

"I couldn't wait."

"What happened to never going anywhere alone in this place?"

She leveled him with an innocent look usually reserved for when Jack caught her doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing. "I'm not alone."

"You need sleep just like the rest of us."

"I want a few more hours to work on this. I'd rather re-charge the generator batteries to full from empty, than from half-full." Sam continued to type.

"That's one hell of an excuse."

Sam's head swiveled to give him her sternest look.

"Colonel," he shrugged.

Sam shook her head and grinned. "I'll get some rest later."

"And I'll take your watch."

Sam nodded unwilling to argue. If someone else took her watch, she could work on the gate.

"The gate has a masked internal power system. I almost missed it when running a sensor sweep. Our handheld devises barely picked it up."

"That's – good news, right?" Maxwell asked.

"I'm hoping there will be enough power stored to dial at least once." Sam tapped a few keys on her keyboard. "So I boosted the signal and figured out that it has a sort of auditory recognition. So as soon as I convert the Beta site gate address into sounds instead of words or symbols, we'll be able to dial. . . "

Their heads turned as one when they heard the sound of gunshots above them.

"Sounds like they're trying to get in," Maxwell stood and pushed Sam's gun closer. "You stay here and work on that dialing program. I'll see what's going on."

He moved away without a glance back and Sam's eyes narrowed.

"Hey, who's in charge here?"

Maxwell turned around, eyes intense. "Ma'am, you're the only one who can get that thing working. I'll send Gibbs back down once I've assessed the situation."

Sam tapped the radio attached to her flak vest. "You call with a sit rep as soon as you have it."

Maxwell offered a curt nod and disappeared. Sam sighed and went back to work, concentrating the text in front of her and not on the shadows approaching from the lower cavern.

TBC

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Liked it? Hated it? Have a guess as to what's going to happen next? Leave a review and let me know!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Jack rolled over in the small uncomfortable bunk and groaned. His back hurt, his legs hurt, everything hurt. He lifted his head and looked at his watch. He hadn't even been asleep for two hours. He flopped back down onto the uncomfortable mattress and stared up at the ceiling.

The shadows playing against it from the small light illuminating the way to the head made him think of the animals he and Sam used to pick out of the clouds when they were up at the cabin.

The memory brought a smile and a pang of remorse to his heart. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"_Nuh uh. That's Marge. Look at the big hair!"_

_They were sitting on the dock, reclining in lawn chairs Sam had bought for this very purpose. Apparently the dock had been too hard on her back to lay on it for hours staring up at the sky the last time they'd been there._

"_That's not hair, Jack, that's a horn."_

"_That is _so_ not a unicorn, Carter."_

_Jack pointed to a large, bulbous cloud next to 'Marge.' "And there's Homer. You can't deny that looks like a pot-belly!" Jack took her silence as capitulation and let out a whoop of elation._

_He took a deep swig of beer and grinned smugly at her. "So – I win."_

_Sam stared up at the sky for a few silent seconds before her head lolled toward him. "If you must. Fine."_

_Jack smirked. "You're such a sore loser."_

"_I didn't lose."_

"_Uh huh."_

_He had a tough time pulling his eyes away from her scantily clad body when she pointed toward a large grouping of clouds. "That looks like the nebula I had to get the Prometheus out of a few years go. And that one beside it looks like the Hydra galaxy. And the one beside that formation looks like the formation of the final attack fleet in Star Wars."_

_Jack stared at her for a long, long minute before leaning back and looking back up at the sky. "Teal'c has had _way_ too much of an affect on you."_

_He could see Sam smirking out of the corner of his eyes but he refused to admit defeat. She was _way_ too hot when she babbled at him._

_He pointed toward a large cluster of wispy clouds to the east of them. "And that one?"_

"_Oh, come on, you don't see it?"_

_He took a sip of his beer. "Nope."_

_When she slid off the chair and lifted the bottle out of his hand, he raised an eyebrow. He didn't say anything when she set it down on the dock and straddled his hips. His fingers inched around the hem of her tank top as she leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. _

"_That's you getting lucky," she breathed against his neck as she trailed teasing kisses down his chest and lower._

A loud metallic chime echoed throughout the room and Jack groaned loudly at the wall.

"That was a nice dream you interrupted, Caldwell." Jack swung his legs over the side of the bed and adjusted his body's reaction to the dream as he walked over and pressed the comm. "What is it?"

"We've picked up an energy signature and a faint distress beacon."

Jack immediately began to throw on some clothes. "Is it them?" He could barely hear Caldwell's response over the sharp pounding of his heart.

"We don't know yet, but you may want to get up here."

Jack didn't even bother to brush his hair. He ran a hand through it, fastened his BDU shirt and ran out the door that slid open as he neared it. "I'm on my way."

****

Sam typed frantically on her keyboard and winced with each round she heard echo through the cavern.

"Come on, come on," she grit out through clenched teeth as her fingers flew across the keyboard. She'd already had to circumvent dialing protocols and programming languages to get the computer to function with the fluctuating power readings.

She stood against the wall now, laptop in one hand, P-90 slung over the shoulder of another. There were only a few small twinges now from her earlier injuries. Ones she could easily ignore.

Movement that led to the upper cavern turned her attention, and her weapon, until she noticed Stacey Gibbs hurry down and squint in the light Sam pointed up the passageway.

"Stacey, what's going on up there?"

"Couple of 'em tried to claw their way in. The guys are holding 'em back, though." The younger woman was out of breath but otherwise unharmed. "Tiyu and Tan were right behind me. Something must have distracted them."

Nodding, Sam went back to her cracked monitor. "I think I'm ready to test-"

She heard it before she saw it; a scrape of a long, deadly claw against stone.

"Don't. Move," came a voice out of the darkness. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was there, covering her.

Sam's froze and her fingers itched to sling her weapon off her shoulder but she heeded Tan's warning. She could see Stacey's hand tremble in the low light.

"At your nine, Colonel," came the voice to her right. "When I say drop, you do it."

"Understood," Sam confirmed, eyes glued to Stacey's, to make sure she understood as well.

In the next moment, several creatures leapt out of the shadows toward them, claws extended and razor sharp teeth bared. Sam and Stacey dropped and rolled as the bullets that went wide embedded themselves in the stone walls. A claw caught her vest and tore a long gash in it, missing skin by inches. Stacey screamed and in the flashing light Sam saw the red that instantly appeared down the length of her hip and leg. She nearly emptied her clip into the creature before crawling quickly backward toward where she thought Tan and Lieu were hiding.

Sam could hear one of her team snap in another clip as the tip of her weapon followed the movement of the creatures that spilled from the lower cavern. She shoved her laptop as far out of range of the creatures as she could and fired volley after volley into the unending motion in front of her.

More light appeared from behind them as the rest of her team arrived. They flipped on their lights and the creatures let out large howls of despair. On a hunch, Sam reached one of the large lights pointed at the Stargate and turned it toward the lower passageway. The creature's yellow eyes glowed with rage and they skittered back down into the darkness.

"Damnit!" Sam growled as her team fanned around her. "Make sure the lights are pointed at the entrances. For some reason, it hurts their eyes." She gave her team a once-over. Lieu knelt beside Stacey, treating her wounds as best he could with what little medical supplies remained in his vest. He looked up at her, eyes wide.

"Colonel, she's going into shock. I need my medical bag."

"Where is it?"

"Up there." He pointed back the way they'd just come and Sam groaned.

Maxwell and Rice stepped past her to flood the other side of the cavern with light, while Tan and Tiyu pointed theirs back up they way they'd come.

"I can't risk anyone leaving right now," Sam said with an authority to her voice that most wouldn't dare question.

Tiyu stared at her, eyes wide and mouth gaping. "She could go into anaphylactic shock if I don't treat this wound."

Sam closed her eyes for a moment before kneeling beside him. "I understand that. But we can't spare anyone to go back up there and-"

Lieu wouldn't take no for an answer and Sam had to admire him for it. "I know exactly where it is."

"No," Stacey whispered, face contorted with pain. "Don't want to risk anyone else. I'll be fine."

Lieu shook his head. "No you won't. Not without-"

"Then gimme some morphine to knock me out so I don't have to be awake when I stop breathing." Her breathing was already labored and when she didn't get a confirmation from her doctor, turned to her commander.

Sam swallowed convulsively.

"Please?"

"Give it to her. And then check what we have down here. Maybe it'll be enough."

"I need a high dose of-"

"Check our bags here," Sam insisted. "Let me assess the situation and see if we can get back up there to get the medicine."

"Not a chance," Maxwell said from behind her. "The place was crawling with 'em."

"We have no idea how they got in," Rice said, his voice thick with tension and fear.

"There must be some other way into the caves," Sam said as she picked up her laptop. It was still on and still connected to the generator. "We haven't explored them all."

Tiyu glanced down at his watch. "The sun will be up in an hour."

"How much longer until we can dial the gate?" Maxwell asked, eyes still watching for any movement in the darkness.

"I've got the dialing program all set but I don't know if there's enough power stored to get a lock," Sam said as she moved around the room.

Rice glanced momentarily back at her. "We have to try. If those things come back-"

They heard the scraping of claws against stone a moment before one of the creatures launched itself through the beam of light and sank his teeth into Rice's neck. His scream was lost in the immediate discharge of weapon fire into the creature and all the rest that flooded in behind him. Sam hurried to cover Maxwell and didn't spare a glance at Lieu and Stacey lying on the ground in front of the gate.

Sam could feel adrenaline fuel her anger and soon she'd expended her ammunition. She checked her vest but there were no clips left. To her right, Maxwell continued firing into the darkness and without another thought she swiped a clip out of Maxwell's vest just as the gunfire came to a stop.

The air stank of blood and gunpowder and Sam immediately stepped back to let Maxwell cover her. She turned toward where Rice lay slumped against the stone wall, his neck and torso covered in blood. On the other side lay Stacey, eyes closed as if she were only sleeping. Lieu lay next to her, fingers wrapped tightly around his gun. Tan and Tiyu were on his other side, unharmed and staring into the darkness that led to the upper level of the cavern.

"I need to get the gate open," Sam said as she reached for her laptop and began typing immediately. "I almost had it before they attacked." A few clicks later and the gate began to dial, loud in the relatively small space of the cavern.

Tiyu pumped his fist in the air. "Yeah!"

Dust and dirt began to fall around their heads.

"Oh great," Maxwell muttered. "If those damn creatures don't eat us, the whole place may collapse on us instead."

"We don't have a choice at this point," Sam said. "We're not getting out of here alive any other way."

"Uh," Lieu asked from his spot on the floor. "Is there enough clearance for the puddle?"

Sam looked at the far wall and winced. "I don't think so."

"I hope it's not a retaining wall for the cave," Maxwell said just as the puddle splashed out and disintegrated half of the opposite wall. The room shook, but no large pieces of stone crumbled around them. Sam instantly reached for the radio attached to her vest.

"Beta site, this is Colonel Carter, please respond."

The only answer was silence.

"Beta site, this is an emergency please respond."

A radio crackled but it wasn't the beta site that she heard.

"_Carter?"_

Sam's eyes widened and her heart flipped. "Ja- General O'Neill?"

"_Where the hell have you been?" _

Sam would have laughed if their situation had been so dire.

"Sir, can you get the beta site to open its iris so we aren't splattered on the way through?"

"_Not there, Carter."_

Sam blinked against all the dust in her eyes. "What?"

An uncertain voice crackled through the other end of the radio. _"This is Colonel Edmonson at the Beta site, please say again? Colonel Carter?"_

"General O'Neill, Colonel Edmonson, we need the iris opened asap," Sam called desperately into the radio. "This is a medical emergency."

"_Carter, I'm on the Daedalus. We're in orbit over the planet,"_ Jack said, his voice strained. _"They're having trouble getting a lock."_

Sam sighed with frustration. "Confirmed, Colonel Edmonson, please respond."

Claws scratching at the stone cut off the rest of her words. She fired into the darkness as the creatures, curious or frightened of the blue glowing puddle, surged toward them.

****

"What the hell is going on down there?" Jack demanded as the sounds of gunfire echoed around the bridge.

Caldwell met Jack's eyes and then turned his attention to his helmsmen. "Lieutenant, can you get a lock?"

"Trying, sir!" The young Lieutenant's hands flew across his console and Jack noticed the frustrated look on his face. "The energy fluctuations are making it difficult."

Jack leaned over the young man's shoulder, his tone tense and demanding. "You'd better get them up here now, Lieutenant."

Jack turned to Caldwell. "Can we talk to the Beta site?"

"Yes."

Jack marched closer to the screen. "Edmonson, let them through now!"

They could hear the cries and gunfire of the people stranded below and Jack clenched his jaw. This was too reminiscent of way too many botched missions where they'd been lucky to escape. Only this time, it was Sam his fiancée and not Sam his second in command who was in imminent danger. He wanted to be down there with her watching her six. But she had people for that now and he'd had to learn how to trust them to protect her.

_His fingers ghosted over the smooth skin of her back as she lay partially on top of him, her breath warm as she panted against his neck. _

_Even the fresh small of her hair, damp as it was against his shoulder, filled his senses with an overwhelming and nearly heart stopping love. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close._

_When she giggled, he glanced down at her with raised eyebrows._

"_I can't possibly get any closer, Jack," she whispered against his neck and followed it with a kiss that he felt to the tips of his toes._

"_Mmm," he answered, eyes drooping sleepily. "Doesn't mean I can't try."_

_He could feel her tense for a moment before she pushed herself up to look down at him._

"_What's going on, Jack?"  
_

_He blinked at her. This really wasn't the time for a serious conversation. At least not this one. Not when his body was still tingling with the afterglow of fantastic sex. He turned his head away and yawned dramatically. "Nothin'."_

_His eyes snapped back to hers when her hand slid down his chest and her long, talented fingers began to tease his very exhausted body. "Jack."_

"_Sam."_

"_Don't do that."_

"_Don't do what?" He asked with an innocent look through which she'd long been able to see._

"_I'm not Daniel. And I can withhold sex, you know."_

"_You wouldn't." Their time together was too short and too precious right now. She'd never do it._

"_Are you willing to take the chance?"_

_His hands splayed across her back and pulled her closer. "Not really."_

"_Then what's going on?"_

_He was silent for a few minutes while his simple brain tried to formulate an answer that wouldn't ruin the moment. Finally deciding that the moment was already pretty much ruined by her inconveniently perceptive mind, he leveled a serious gaze at her._

"_It's tough sitting on the sidelines." And it was just as hard admitting it to her._

_Her eyes immediately softened and he was reminded yet again why he loved this woman so very deeply. She reached across his chest and twined her fingers in his._

"_I know."_

_She leaned up and pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to the corner of his mouth before speaking._

"_We agreed that – this wouldn't get in the way," Sam said softly._

"_Yeah," Jack said, remembering when another woman had said something similar – a minute before she ended their relationship._

"_I know it's hard for you," Sam said, her voice low. He felt her concern in the way her fingers tightened in his._

"_Yeah."_

_Her unwavering gaze was unnerving to say the least. "You know I'll always come back to you."_

_From behind her shoulder, his other twined in her hair and pulled her closer. "Sometimes, that choice isn't yours to make."_

_She didn't speak, only leaned forward when his mouth possessed hers, hard and demanding. The kiss went on for a long, long minute before they parted. But she didn't lean away, only pressed herself impossibly closer and whispered, "I know," before distracting him in the best way possible for the rest of what remained of their evening._

****

Sam barely heard Edmondson's confirmation to come through as she helped Lieu lift Stacey and pushed them through the event horizon.

"Let's go!" Sam cried. "Move out!"

"We'll cover you, go!" Maxwell shouted as he moved backward toward her.

"No one left behind, Major, now let's go!" Sam ordered as one of the creatures wrapped a long-clawed talon around Tiyu's ankle. He screamed, Maxwell stumbled with a slash to his chest as Sam pulled him back toward the Stargate and away from the creature's claw now dripping with blood. She shoved him through the puddle just as the creature's advance obscured her view of Tan and Tiyu. A claw ripped into her hip, and another across her chest, just as a white beam enveloped her body and blackness overwhelmed her vision.

TBC


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes: I'm not a real fan of this chapter as it just isn't as exciting to me as the rest. But, it had to be here so - enjoy if you can!**

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****Chapter 8**

Jack watched as Sam, Tiyu and Tan materialized on the bridge. All three of them were covered in blood and upright for all of 1.2 seconds.

"What the hell?" Jack cursed as he rushed forward to catch Sam. He winced at the sound of the other two bodies hitting the floor.

Dimly, Jack heard Caldwell call for a medical team to the bridge, but he could only hear the pounding of his own heart as Sam collapsed into his arms.

There was blood everywhere and Jack couldn't stop the fear that pressed against his gut that he'd found them too late. Glancing down Sam's torso, he noticed a long claw protruding from her hip, blood covering her chest and her eyes were glassy as they tried to focus on him.

"Sam?" He yanked out the claw and pressed the palm of his hand to the jagged gash in her hip. He couldn't take the chance that even dismembered from its owner that it wouldn't continue to pump poison into her body. "Stay with me. Help's on the way."

Sam's lips moved and she blinked back the tears or sweat, he couldn't be sure, that dripped into her eyes. Her face was damp and flushed and her breathing was erratic. When the pounding in his ears from his frantic heart beat lowered enough, he could hear her faint repeated whisper of his name.

The next few seconds ticked by so slowly that Jack nearly picked her up and carried her to the infirmary himself, weak knees be damned.

Just as he was about to do that, he was pushed aside as the medical team arrived to take over. Jack backed slowly away, hands covered in blood.

Sam's head lolled toward the doctor, eyes glassy with pain, and he could barely make out the breathless word.

"Anaphylaxis." Sam groaned when the medical team began to assess her injuries. When she took a few deep, deep breaths and then fell unconscious, Jack started forward. Only Daniel's hand sliding around his arm prevented him from interfering. "There's nothing you can do, Jack. Stay out of their way."

Jack's fingers tightened into fists and he wanted to yank his arm away and ignore Daniel's word of warning but the younger man was right. When Sam's body went rigid and she stopped breathing, panic seized his chest but Daniel continued to hold him back.

They watched as the doctor demanded a lot of cc's of something called epinephrine and injected it into Sam's body faster than Jack could blink.

The doctor quickly ripped Sam's shirt open and a flash of light on metal startled him. Jack watched helplessly as the medic quickly cut through the chain holding Sam's tags. . . and his ring. . . around her neck. All three fell to the floor, forgotten in a growing pool of blood the medics were trying frantically to stem.

Jack winced as the doctor tipped Sam's head back, opened her mouth and quickly slid in a tube he wished he didn't recognize. He'd spent far too much time in hospitals.

"What's goin' on, Doc?" Jack demanded.

"Whatever's wounded them," the doctor answered as he affixed a bag to the end of the tube and began to push air into her Sam's lungs, "it caused a kind of paralysis and anaphylaxis. Colonel Carter stopped breathing."

Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yeah, noticed that."

"I need to get her to the infirmary, stat." One hand pumping the bag rhythmically, causing Sam's chest to rise and fall each time, the doctor motioned to a few men Jack hadn't noticed standing behind him. They came forward, lowered the stretcher, carefully maneuvered Sam onto it and carried her away.

Jack and Daniel followed at their heels fear etched on their faces, leaving the entire bridge crew to watch their retreating backs with equally worried looks.

****

Jack paced outside the infirmary where the doctors were frantically working on their patients. He'd spent enough time in infirmaries to understand the tone of voice the doctors employed when they needed space to work. He hadn't fought too hard when he was ushered completely out of the room though it was probably because of Daniel's death grip on his arm that made it easier for the doctors to get him out of the way.

So – he paced, in a circle, a straight line, occasionally he would stop and see if he could overhear anything from the closed doors. Instead, all he could see was a lot of blood and a lot of people surrounding Sam's bed.

He could only assume the other two that had been beamed on board were equally as hurt, though he couldn't bring himself to spare more than a passing thought for them at the moment.

"Jack?"

He didn't want to talk right now but he knew Daniel was going to try and distract him. His pacing more than likely had finally irked Daniel into saying something.

"Not now, Daniel," he said as he pushed a hand though his already messy hair.

"General?"

Jack whirled around to see Caldwell standing a few feet away.

"What is it?"

"The Beta site checked in. They got three people through the gate along with a few – unexpected guests."

Jack opened his mouth to ask but Daniel beat him to it.

"What kind of guests?" Daniel asked.

"Some sort of creature; big as a man with long claws and really sharp teeth." Jack didn't miss the disgusted look that crossed Caldwell's face.

"The ones that did this to Carter and her crew?" Jack motioned jerkily toward the infirmary.

"It's a good guess. Edmonson's men killed them all, but not without sustaining a few injuries themselves. A Major Maxwell, Lieutenant Gibbs and Captain Lieu made it through the gate. Gibbs is critical, Maxwell isn't much better and Lieu stable."

"Thanks for the report, Colonel," Jack felt himself say but couldn't be bothered to care much more at the moment. He'd get more information as soon as he knew how Sam was doing.

"If you'd like a more detailed report, I've still got Edmondson on the horn."

"Tell him I'll call him back as soon as I get a report from the doc."

"Yes, Sir."

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack could see Caldwell hesitate and then hold out his hand.

Jack glanced down at the blood covered dogtags resting against Caldwell's palm and then up at the man's neutral expression. If the Colonel noticed, or cared, about the ring dangling from the chain, he gave no indication. Jack nodded wordlessly as he took the tags.

"Thanks."

"I'm sure she'll be grateful to have it back." A small smile curved one corner of Caldwell's mouth before he nodded and walked away.

Jack felt more than saw Daniel look down at the tags. "God, what the hell happened to her?"

"I dunno Danny," Jack took a step toward the infirmary doors. "But I hope she lives to tell us."

****

Jack made no attempt to hide his anxiety as he stood in front of the conference room viewscreen listening to Henry Hayes. His fingers flexed with agitation and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other so often the President _had_ to have noticed.

Finally, Hayes paused long enough for Jack to interject. "Sir, with all due respect. . ." Jack trailed off when Hayes raised his hand.

"I know you want to get back to her, Jack, but I need a report." Hayes eyes were bright with concern and laced with excitement that the _Hammond_ had been found and that just irritated Jack even more. "I instructed Colonel Caldwell to contact you if her situation changes."

Jack nodded slowly, grateful that at very least, Hayes had thought about how pissed he'd be to be dragged from Sam's side.

There were so many places, as head of Homeworld Security that Jack should be, so many people he should be talking with, but there was only one place he wanted to be and that wasn't here, talking with the President about things Jack felt could wait.

"We're a few days out, Henry, can I give you a detailed report then?"

"You know that'll be fine, Jack, I just needed a brief overview right now." Jack noticed Hayes flatten his hands on the table in front of him. "Believe it or not there are people to whom I have to answer over this incident."

"I understand, Sir," Jack couldn't help but hope that was the end of the conversation and the President would sign off and bug him later. Much. Much. Later.

"We'll talk more when you get back," Hayes said as he leaned forward and placed both elbows on his desk. "Needless to say everyone was ecstatic to learn you'd found the _Hammond_."

"No more than I was, Sir," Jack said, itching to terminate the call and get back to the infirmary.

"There are a lot of concerned folks here looking forward to reading that report," Hayes said as Jack watched him reach out and end the transmission.

****

_The kiss became more heated the longer their lips remained fused together. She didn't care that she'd been straddling him for an undetermined amount of time or that her knees were pressed rather firmly into a hard metal hull. She only cared about the feel of his mouth beneath hers and his impossibly long fingers wrapping around her waist and pulling her closer._

_She tipped her head back and allowed his mouth to blaze a heated path down the smooth, sensitive skin of her neck. In the back of her mind, she registered the unending hum of machinery all around them but she didn't care. Not right now. Now when she finally had what she wanted._

"_Jack," Sam whispered when a long-fingered hand slid into her hair and tugged her mouth back to his._

_Her skin tingled and she could feel the evidence of his growing arousal pinned between them as she wrapped her hands around his neck and deepened the kiss._

_Amidst all the passion, her head throbbed and she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she should be doing something else. With a reluctant sigh against his oh-so-sweet mouth, Sam leaned back and opened her eyes._

"_Jack," Sam whispered her heart thudding sharply as he smiled warmly at her._

"_Go save your ass."_

_The passionate vision of sitting on the floor of the Prometheus making out with her CO vanished and she was left alone on the abandoned starship._

As Sam slowly clawed her way out of unconsciousness, the first sensation she registered was the scent of a sterile environment, the second was that she could feel her extremities; even pain was a good sign at this point, and third, was the feeling that she was being watched.

She could feel her eyelids slowly obey her command and when they finally slid open, she groaned at the bright light shining down from above her. Almost immediately, a shadow intercepted that light and she turned her head to see the smiling face of Daniel Jackson.

He wasn't the first person she expected to see and she swallowed back the momentary disappointment before offering him a weak smile. Maybe she'd dreamed that Jack had been there to catch her.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Daniel squeezed her hand, mindful of the IV. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"

Sam swallowed and tried to speak. Her mouth was dry and so the words came out as a whisper. "Where – am I?"

"The _Daedalus_. Jack kinda, uh, commandeered it."

Sam blinked rapidly. Jack? So he was here? "What – do you – mean?"

"Told the President he was going to resign if they didn't give him a ship to come look for you." There was a proud smile on Daniel's face as if he was happy to have been the one to tell her all about it.

Sam felt a smile tug at her mouth. "Where – is he?" She shifted her eyes to look around the small room.

"Oh, talking with the President," Daniel waved his free hand absently toward the door. "You should have seen how pissed he was when Hayes called and he had to leave."

Sam smiled, easily imagining the fight Jack would have put up if ordered to leave her side. "I'll bet he – was."

"He told Caldwell to just drop the link. As if hanging up on the President was going to fly." Daniel rolled his eyes and Sam couldn't help but smile even more.

"How – long have I been - out?" Sam swallowed, her mouth dry, but her voice getting stronger by the minute.

"For about six hours."

"Longest of my life, too," Jack said as he walked in and pulled a chair up to the other side of Sam's bed.

"Liar," Sam whispered as he reached out and carefully slid her hand into his. She squeezed his fingers tightly.

The doctor chose that moment to walk in, a smile instantly spreading across his face when he noticed Sam's open eyes.

"Welcome back, Colonel."

Sam cleared her throat. "Thanks."

"Could she get some water, Doc?" Jack asked and was grateful when a cup complete with straw was produced almost immediately. He held it to her lips and she drank deeply until he pulled it away with a cluck of the tongue. "Drink slow."

Sam nodded and once she was done, asked, her voice steadier now, "My team?"

"Maxwell, Gibbs and Lieu made it through to the beta site," Jack answered.

"Tan and Tiyu are here in pretty much the same state as you," The doctor finished. "They woke up a few hours ago."

"At least almost all of us got off that dusty old sandball I would be hard-pressed to call a planet," Sam muttered. Only two hadn't made it and she was already thinking about the letters she would write to their families.

"We'll get your report when you're feeling up to it," Jack said and squeezed her hand again.

"Okay," Sam agreed, eyes drooping. She held his fingers, unwilling to release the lifeline to which she so desperately felt she needed to cling.

"Get some rest, I'll be right here." She heard him say before her eyes slid shut and she fell into the first relaxed sleep she'd had in a month.

****

"The IOA's gonna want to go back to that planet and pick up the pieces," Jack said with a snarl of disgust. His hands fiddled with a closed folder sitting in his lap, for a lack of anything else to do.

"I can only imagine the hell you've put them through in the last month," Sam said as she picked at the food on the plate in front of her. She couldn't imagine ever wanting to go back to that planet but she had an unsettling feeling she'd be the one leading that expedition.

"It's nothing they didn't deserve," Jack muttered as he leaned forward and sniffed her tray.

Sam grinned at him and held up her fork. "Hungry?"

She chuckled when he wrinkled his nose and leaned away. "Yeah, for pizza and a six pack."

"I'll be sure to requisition those direct from your office when we get back, Sir," Caldwell smirked as he walked in and stopped at the foot of Sam's bed.

"For this one, Caldwell, I'll make sure it's approved." Sam couldn't miss the appreciative tone in Jack's voice and turned her full attention to the Commander of the _Daedalus_.

"This is the best assignment this crew's had, General."

Sam was struck by the kindness in Caldwell's eyes as he looked down at her. His voice was even more tender than normal when he added, "Welcome back, Sam."

She couldn't help but smile. "Thanks. It's good to be-"

The ship shook as something impacted with the hull and the alarms began to echo throughout the ship. Sparks cascaded down over their heads as electrical systems blinked off and on when they were short circuited.

Caldwell tapped his headset and barked into it. "Bridge, what's going on?"

"Unidentified hostile, Sir! It came out of nowhere and just started firing on us!"

Sam exchanged a worried look with Jack. "That's exactly what happened to the _Hammond_."

Caldwell's eyes narrowed. "Raise shields and return fire. I'll be right there."

Caldwell turned to Sam, "Can you walk? We may be able to use your help."

Sam immediately swung her legs over the bed but they weren't strong enough to hold her weight and she slumped weakly against the bed. She let out a frustrated grunt and stubbornly pushed herself upright again, this time hissing in pain as stitches were pulled to their limits. Jack was at her side in an instant, attention split between her and Caldwell.

"I'll get her there, go!"

The ship shook again, this time feeling like a boat gently rocking on a lake. At least the shields had taken the brunt of the blast.

Jack helped her out of bed and together they moved out of the infirmary amidst a rather sharp protest from the doctor.

Crew rushed past them on their way to their assigned stations as Caldwell's voice came over the comm. "Battle stations, this is not a drill. I repeat. Battle stations."

"I really don't want a repeat of a month ago," Sam muttered as they hurried toward the bridge.

"If we've gotta go, I'd rather it be together," Jack said with a lopsided smirk.

Sam rolled her eyes. "So not what I wanted to hear right now, Jack."

TBC

* * *

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	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

By the time they reached the bridge, there was a level of tension permeating the air that was all too familiar to Sam. The sudden attack of an unknown enemy with unknown strength was something a commander never wanted to face.

"They're ignoring all attempts to communicate," the helmsman offered and Sam could hear the fear in his voice.

"It's the same MO," Sam said, strength returning quickly as she leaned on Jack for support. There was still pain, but the painkillers the doctor had injected prior to her leaving the infirmary had already begun to work.

"What'd you do?" Caldwell asked as the ship shook again.

"Shields holding," came the announcement from weapons control.

"We lost," Sam said with a frown. "I beamed my crew down to the closest planet with a known Stargate and tried to lead the ship away." Sam glanced out the forward viewscreen. "Their weapons were impossibly powerful but as soon as we got in a few good hits, we found the shield wasn't so strong."

Caldwell glanced at his helmsman. "Evasive maneuvers. Give them our backs and let them think we're turning tail."

"That can't be the same one that attacked us. We destroyed it," Sam said as she took a step forward.

"So there's more than one," Caldwell muttered. "Great."

Sam glanced sharply at Caldwell. "They're surprisingly maneuverable for their size."

Caldwell nodded. "I noticed."

The ship shook again and another announcement from weapons control reminded Sam eerily of a similar way this had gone down on her own ship.

"Transfer all available power to the shields and fire rail guns. Concentrate Asgard beams on their weapons systems." On the outside, Caldwell was sure and confident but Sam knew exactly how helpless he was truly feeling.

"I don't suggest we try and talk to 'em, Caldwell, seeing as they're fans of shooting first and asking questions later," Jack said, his voice laced with tension and just a bit of authority.

"Well, normally I'd agree with you -"

"I have to agree with the General," Sam said. And she did. She wasn't just agreeing with her fiancée. Caldwell was a bright enough commander to understand that. "They didn't seem particularly interested in talking last time."

The ship shook as weapons control announced, "Shields down to 75 percent!"

Caldwell nodded sharply and pointed toward the screen. "Fire at will. I repeat, fire at will. Target anything our sensors indicate to be a weakness in their hull."

"Have you radioed Earth?" Jack asked as he moved to stand behind Caldwell.

"Not yet," "Caldwell said. "We've been a little busy."

"Send an emergency transmission and give them our coordinates," Jack ordered and the communications officer's hands flew across his controls in an attempt to comply.

"We're days out from Earth. No one would get here in time," Daniel said as he hurried onto the bridge.

"Thanks for that encouraging comment, Daniel," Jack muttered. "At least they'll know where we went down if we don't report at our next scheduled check-in."

"We aren't _that_ far out from Earth, how is it we don't know anything about these hostiles?" Caldwell asked no one in particular.

"We'd never had any contact with them until they shot down the _Hammond_," Sam said as the ship shook again. She grabbed the back of the helmsman's chair and grimaced. As much as she hated to show weakness, she was grateful to feel Jack's steadying hand at her back.

"Couldn't have anything to do with the destruction of Icarus, could it? These two incidents are suspiciously close." Jack's eyes narrowed at the beams arcing across the viewscreen.

"Maybe these beings lived on Icarus?" Daniel asked no one in particular.

"We were assured there was no life on Icarus before we built a base there," Jack said.

"Well how often are we wrong about _that_ sort of thing?" Daniel challenged, eyebrows raised.

Caldwell pulled his attention away from the battle for a moment and squinted at each of them. "Wait a minute, are you telling me this could be a space-faring race blaming us for the destruction of their home?"

Weapons control interrupted with a, "Sir, Asgard beams have broken through their shields. They're moving away."

"Intercept them!" Jack ordered with a brief glance at Caldwell.

The Colonel nodded his agreement. "Do it."

"Target all firepower at their weapon systems and engines," Jack ordered. "I don't want them getting away." He turned to communications. "Contact Earth and have them send the _Apollo_ out here."

"And keep sensors at maximum," Caldwell added. "I want to know if there are any more of these ships out there." He glanced at Jack and Sam felt grateful the Colonel wasn't upset that Jack had started giving orders to his crew. "We don't want to be surprised again."

There was a flash of light as the Daedalus maneuvered to chase and then the large ship was gone.

"Sir! They're -" the lieutenant manning weapons control said suddenly.

"Gone," Caldwell muttered with a curse. "We see, Lieutenant."

The communications officer turned to Jack, one hand on his headset, one on his control console. "General, I've got Homeworld on the line for you."

A tech came forward with a headset for Jack but he waved it off and motioned to the viewscreen. "Put it on screen."

General Vidrine's concerned face popped up in front of them and Sam was mildly amused to notice everyone, even Jack, stand up a bit straighter.

"Jack, what's going on out there? You radioed a request for the _Apollo_?"

"Yeah, seems we've got a problem out here, General," Jack began. "We were just attacked by the same kind of ship that downed the _Hammond_. We've taken damage and I want to make sure we have backup in case more of 'em come at us."

Vidrine's eyes narrowed at the succinct report. "Threat assessment, General?"

"To Earth and to us?" Jack asked, his gaze searching the room before falling on Sam. "High."

"I'll send out the _Apollo_. Don't leave the area. I don't want you to inadvertently lead a hostile enemy to Earth's doorstep. The _Sun Tzu_ will remain in Earth's orbit and the _Odyssey_ is on its way back." Sam watched as Vidrine nodded to someone sitting out of camera range. "Without the Ancient chair, Earth is more vulnerable than we'd like."

"Understood," Jack acknowledged with a curt nod.

"I'm also going to contact _Atlantis_ and make them aware of the situation."

"Yes, Sir, that would be advisable," Jack agreed.

"Keep us appraised, General, Vidrine out."

Jack shook his head and pried his fingers from the state of the art molded plastic in front of him. "Charming man."

"Intense may be a better word for it," Daniel muttered, the only one on board besides Jack who was able to comment without fear of being charged with insubordination.

"So we're just going to sit here and wait for the _Apollo_?" Caldwell's XO asked with narrowed eyes. "When that thing probably made the jump to go get reinforcements?"

"Those were our orders, Major," Caldwell said but the look on his face was anything but happy.

"They're about two days out, less at max speed," came an update from helm control.

"Well then, we'd better get repairs underway if we expect to have to hold this ship, or more, off for two days." Caldwell said. "We'll be in the conference room if you need us." The Colonel motioned for Sam and Jack as he walked off the bridge.

****

Sam sank gingerly onto the bed with a scowl shot in the general direction of Jack and the doctor. He hovered nearby, almost inappropriately too close and his eyes were fixed firmly on her.

"I'm fine,' she hissed between clenched teeth.

"Let me be the judge of that, hmm?" the doctor said with a knowing look. She wouldn't put it past Jack to have revealed all of her secrets for dealing with incarceration in the infirmary while she was unconscious.

She glared at the hospital gown he held.

"I need you to put this on so I can examine you."

She knew what he wanted. She just didn't really want to go through this right now. When he glanced back at General O'Neill hovering behind him, the doctor misinterpreted her hesitation.

"Uh, General, I need to-"

Jack raised his hand in a dismissive gesture she was all too familiar with. "Get on with it then."

"Sir-" Doctor Franklin hesitated again, clearly hoping the General would get the hint.

Sam really hated to put him out of his misery. She'd clearly spent far too much time around Jack O'Neill. She'd taken to some of his more irritating traits like a fly to poo.

"It's fine, doctor," Sam said as she lifted the gown out of his hands with an annoyed huff and began to slowly remove the clothing she'd hastily thrown on in their rush out of the infirmary less than an hour earlier. "He can stay."

"Oh," the doctor's wide eyes focused on her face with sudden understanding before he turned away to finish prepping his examination tools. "Okay."

Sam carefully tried to keep any strain off her face but when she swung her injured leg up onto the bed, she couldn't keep the hiss of pain from escaping through clenched teeth.

Jack was at her side in an instant, helping to lift the injured leg. She shot him a grateful smile before he pulled his hands away.

"I'll take a look at that first," the doctor said as he slid the gown up her legs to bare the heavily bandaged thigh.

Sam winced as the doctor began prodding at the tissue surrounding the jagged cut. Jack hovered close to her head while the doctor worked and she was grateful for his presence, despite how it may look to anyone overly concerned with following protocol.

"You're going to have a good sized scar, but its already healing well," the doctor said as he began to re-wrap her thigh.

"Just another one to add to the list," Sam muttered and leaned her head back onto the pillow. She caught Jack's eyes as something she easily recognized passed quickly across his face before he'd squashed it away. She reached out and reassuringly brushed the back of her fingers against where his closest hand hung tense at his side.

"All right," the doctor stood and reached for the part in the front of the gown. "This gash wasn't as deep but it was a lot closer to vital organs."

"I was falling away when the claw slashed at me," Sam said with as much emotional detachment as she could force into her voice. She would never forget the feel of tearing skin or the sound of Jack's voice as she was enveloped in that live-saving Asgard beam.

"It probably saved your life," The doctor said as he cut the bandages away and began to poke and the red, puckered skin. "These will, unfortunately scar as well."

Sam nodded and closed her eyes as the doctor continued to work.

_His fingers ghosted gently over the bandage adhered snugly to her side and she found it difficult not to tremble at the touch. The Ori staff blast was healing well, but it had left a nasty scar. She had so many from her time with the SGC that it was difficult to shake that self conscious feeling every time Jack helped her change the bandage._

_A soft sigh escaped her lips when those deliciously long fingers trailed along the bottom edge of the bandage to wrap loosely around her hip. She slowly slung her leg up over his and twined her arms even tighter around his neck. _

_It had been like this ever since he'd arrived. He'd had to be near her, touch her in any way that was allowed and she knew it was to just assure himself that she was alive. She recognized the signs. They'd just only recently begun to comfort one another in ways previously forbidden by Air Force regs._

"_Jack," she whispered when his mouth moved to her neck and began to suck gently on that oh-so-sensitive patch of skin._

_She could feel the rumble of his response shoot straight down her spine. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep, steadying breath._

_He instantly lifted his head and her eyes fluttered open at the loss of contact. "Hurt?"_

"_Mmm," she whispered non-commitedly as she slid her fingers through his close-cropped hair._

_Her insides liquefied when he dropped a quick kiss to her lips and resumed his previous exploration of her neck. She relaxed and let him have his way, wondering just how far he would go before he decided he didn't want to hurt her._

_Her hips arched sharply off the bed when his fingers dipped between her legs. His head snapped up instantly when a sharp gasp escaped her lips._

"_Pain?"_

"_Only when you don't warn me first," Sam said, breathless. Now her side had begun to ache and her insides were burning for more._

_Jack pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth and resumed his delicate touch. "This okay?" he whispered so softly she could barely hear it over the pounding of her heart._

_Her eyes fluttered shut when his fingers plunged slowly inward. Her muscles parted easily and she shifted her lower body to a more comfortable, accessible position. "God, yes," she murmured._

_Her body began to tremble as he expertly worked through the sensitive folds. Before long she was panting, hips rising to meet each thrust of his long, dexterous fingers. When his thumb dropped to her most sensitive spot and began to rub gently, she quickly covered his hand with her own and forced him to move harder._

"_Sam . . ." His voice was rough with arousal but Sam couldn't concentrate on anything else right now. Almost instantly, every nerve ending fired and she trembled hard in his arms._

_She moaned loudly as she tightened her grip in his hair and rode out the waves of pleasure arcing down her spine._

_When she came down from the euphoric high, her head lolled to one side and a sleepy smile crossed her face. "Thank you."_

"_I've always been told sex is the perfect painkiller," Jack grinned, eyes twinkling._

_Sam snuggled close and let her eyes droop, thinking that when she woke up she would trace every one of __**his**__ scars with the tip of her tongue – doctors orders be damned._

Sam blinked herself out of the pleasant memory when the doctor pulled the pieces of her gown back together.

"You've got almost as many battle wounds as me, Carter," Jack joked, but beneath it, Sam could see the guilt in his eyes. "This isn't a race, you know."

Sam smiled and curled her little finger around his as a way to silently offer some measure of comfort that she was okay.

"I'd like you to stay here for another 12 hours," the doctor said as he made notes in her file. "Keep weight off that leg and give the stitches more time to bind everything together. Then – short walks."

Sam bristled but it wasn't anything she wasn't expecting to hear. "Doctor, with all due respect, we've got an unknown number of hostiles out there. I think I'm needed elsewhere."

"I'll make sure she stays put, Doc," Jack said without looking at her.

Sam's eyes narrowed suspiciously but she held her tongue.

"Thank you, General," the doctor finished making his notations and grinned at her. "I'll have some pain meds delivered every six hours until you can _believably_ function without them."

Sam exhaled an annoyed puff of breath through her teeth. Apparently, Jack _had_ taken it upon himself to inform the doctor of the more O'Neill-like qualities she exhibited during an enforced, extended infirmary stay.

"I'll be back to check on you in a few hours, then," the doctor added before disappearing through the drape surrounding the bed.

Sam took a moment to compose herself before turning narrowed eyes on her fiancé. Before she could speak, he raised a hand, silencing the protest poised on the tip of her tongue.

"Don't even say it. I know you're needed. We'll bring your doohickies to you."

****

Caldwell was pacing the bridge when Jack and Sam entered. He raised an eyebrow at Sam's slight limp but said nothing. Jack, on the other hand, had had plenty to say when after only six hours lying in the infirmary with a laptop balanced on her legs, she'd announced she wanted to go to the bridge.

A short, hushed argument later and Sam was here, flanked by her Jack O'Neill sized shadow.

"I recall the doctor ordering bed rest, Colonel," Caldwell said with as much authority as he could believably exert while standing in front of a man that outranked him by several stars.

"He also ordered light exercise that included walking," Sam retorted with a smug smile. It had been the same excuse she'd used with Jack.

"Yes, well, don't plan on being here for long. I know Franklin and he'll come chasing after you up here and blame me for your little detour," Caldwell muttered and she could easily detect the annoyance in his voice. That tone was full of respect when he shot a quick nod to Jack. "General."

"She won't be here for long," Jack said in a tone that in no way caused her to think he wouldn't sling her over his shoulder and carry her cave man style back to the infirmary if she refused to go when he deemed it time.

"Well, since there hasn't been much of anything new in the last few hours, I wanted to make sure you weren't holding out on me," Sam challenged, an edge to her voice.

"Nothing, Sam," Caldwell stopped his pacing and turned to face her. "You've got all relevant data on the encounter."

"Which isn't much," Sam said with a frown. "The design of their ship isn't anything we've ever encountered before."

"It looks cobbled together, though," Jack offered with a shrug.

Daniel walked in and with a scowl directed toward Jack, which caused Sam to instantly grin, he turned his attention to her. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

Sam shrugged. "My butt fell asleep."

Sam resisted the urge to grin when a lone eyebrow rose high onto Daniel's forehead and he grunted an inaudible reply. Daniel shook off the far too Jack-like comment fairly quickly and held up his data pad.

"Jack's right, though."

Jack's eyes darted toward Daniel. "I am?"

"The ship does look cobbled together. Its design is a mix of a multitude of races that we've encountered over the years."

"And that helps us how, Daniel?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow of his own.

"Don't tell me we've found another race of Goa'uld'ish thieves," Caldwell said with a snort.

"God, I hope not," Daniel said quickly. "These ones are far more deadly and capable than the Goa'uld ever were."

Jack turned his full attention on Daniel and with a sarcastic quip, added. "We hadn't noticed, Daniel."

A tech looked up from a console on the far side of the bridge. "Repairs are almost fully completed."

"Good," Caldwell said with a nod. "At least we'll be able to hold out for more than a few minutes next time."

"With any luck," Jack began and Sam had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, "We've seen the last of these. . ."

Before Jack could finish, several bright holes began to expand through the darkness of space, indicating multiple arrivals from hyperspace.

Before any of them could ask, a report was called out. "Multiple bogies behind us, Sir, all have shields raised and weapons armed."

"Raise shields," Caldwell ordered and returned to his seat.

Daniel stared at Jack. "You just had to say something, didn't you?"

Sam stared out the forward viewscreen, eyes wide, as a ship so wide it seemed to stretch the fabric of space hurtled out of the hyperspace window. "That one is as large as Atlantis."

"I have a very bad feeling about this," Daniel muttered, just as the bridge was flooded by a blinding white light.

"What is that?" Caldwell demanded as he covered his eyes.

"They're scanning us, Sir!" came an answer from helm control.

"Block 'em!" Jack ordered sharply as he felt the familiar tingle of a transport beam. "Uh, guys . . ."

The light vanished as quickly as it appeared and as Sam glanced to the empty space beside her, she, as well of the rest of the bridge, noticed they were missing one very imposing General.

Daniel's head snapped back to the viewscreen and his words echoed Sam's immediate thought. "Uh oh."

TBC

* * *

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	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Alarms began to sound throughout the ship and Sam gripped the back of Caldwell's chair to keep her balance.

"How the hell did they get through our shields?" Caldwell demanded, his eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

"I don't know, Sir!"

"I'm detecting an energy signature coming from the ships, Sir."

"Are they powering weapons?" Sam asked, leaning toward the helmsmen and the console that would give her an answer.

"No, Ma'am."

"Broadcast on all channels. I want to know why they've taken General O'Neill!" Caldwell ordered as he returned to his seat. "Power weapons but do not fire."

"Sir, I'm picking up a transmission, but its nothing our system can understand or translate."

Daniel hurried over to the console and pressed a headset to his ear.

"Let's hear it, Lieutenant," Caldwell said quickly.

When the transmission was piped through the speakers, a peaceful tingle rushed down Sam's spine. The emotionally charged bridge fell silent as the tranquil melody of a million tiny bells all tinkling their own rhythmic sound echoed through the room.

"What is that?" Caldwell asked, eyes narrowing.

"It must be how they communicate," Daniel answered absently, his eyes still glued on the console in front of him.

"It's beautiful," a female helmsman commented, a wondrous smile on her face.

"Beautiful though it may be, Lieutenant," Caldwell stared hard at the young woman seated to the side of him. "They are an enemy combatant that has taken a three star General off this ship without his consent."

"Let me see if I can communicate with them," Daniel said, standing suddenly. "Can you open a channel?"

Caldwell nodded curtly to his second. "Do it."

****

When Jack uncovered his eyes, the white light had vanished and he was standing in the middle of a large empty room.

"Well this is – new," Jack quipped. "Doesn't much look like my old buddy's ship, though."

At the far side of the room a door slid open and he stared for a long minute before cautiously moving toward it. His eyes cased his surroundings and his body coiled tight and ready to strike out if something harmful approached.

He hadn't been in the field in years, but instincts honed from decades on the front lines were difficult to forget. Sense memory ruled his every step now. He only hoped he wasn't where he thought he was, but really, in the back of his mind, he knew he'd been transported onto one of the enemy ships. Why, was his next question and he wasn't a very patient man. He wasn't going to wait for them to come to him.

The room through the now open doorway was dark and Jack hesitated. But instinct and a burning need to know why these people had fired on Earth ships pushed him forward. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, the door slid shut and light flooded the room.

Jack stared, eyebrows raised, at the familiar-looking equipment that lined every available surface space in this cavernous room. He recognized a few pieces instantly; and Ancient communications device sat on a polished table right in front of him. To his right sat a full size Puddle Jumper.

"I've never really been a fan of museums," Jack muttered to himself as he reached for a small item he recognized to be an Ancient personal shield device. Contrary to popular belief, he'd actually read all the reports that had come out of Atlantis.

"It has been a long time since we have met someone capable of using the devices of the Creators."

Jack whirled at the sound of the melodic voice and his eyes widened when they fell on a very tall, waif-like humanoid being. Her eyes were wide and pear-shaped and her skin was like the whitest ivory, almost translucent. Her hair, as dark as her eyes, was pulled into a golden coif-like thing that Jack couldn't even begin to describe. As she moved closer, Jack had to crane his neck upward to look at her rounded face.

"Who are you?" Jack asked as his fingers flexed over the Ancient shield device. "And I find that hard to believe if you make it a habit of plucking people off their ships."

Her head tilted to the side and her large eyes swept across his body. The appraisal wasn't surprising and Jack did the same, his mind cataloguing what kind of threat this being could pose to his safety.

"We do not venture into the stars lightly nor do we with any regularity seek out younger races," she answered, her voice a melodic sound to his ears.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Why now then?"

The being stared at him for a long minute as if trying to decide how much she wanted to say. Just as Jack opened his mouth to speak, she answered.

"We are a dying race," she said softly. "And we need your help."

She touched a pendant at her neck and smiled at him, which, oddly, had a calming affect on his coiled nerves. He had a fleeting thought that the item was translating her speech into something he could understand.

Jack gestured around the room. "You Ancients?"

"No."

"Didn't think so. They didn't really look like - you."

"We were allies, long ago." The look on her face was sad, regretful.

"Yet you're still here and they're not." The words were accusing but the tone in which he'd said them were not. He found himself hoping she wouldn't be offended.

"They – left the corporeal world and we found ourselves unable to generate the power requirements necessary for our existence."

Jack blinked rapidly, his smallish brain trying to soak in the information being given to him. They'd _so_ beamed the wrong person onto the ship if they were looking for someone who could store a wealth of knowledge in their _fron_. Jack winced inwardly. It was rare when Ancient words popped into his thoughts but this time he found it oddly comforting.

"And you thought attacking us would give you more power?"

"You destroyed our home." The voice was soft, tranquil and so matter-of-fact, Jack had to appreciate the simple answer. "It was our duty to retaliate."

"Icarus," Jack muttered. It wasn't a question.

The being slowly inclined her head. "We slept beneath the surface of the planet. Our lives sustained by the power that churned within its core."

"You have to know we weren't responsible for Icarus being destroyed," Jack said quickly, his hands outstretched at his sides. "That base was attacked by an enemy dangerous to us both. We lost people, too."

"You should not have tapped into a power you do not understand. You are too young. Still learning." The voice was mildly chastising.

"I've heard that before," Jack muttered with a roll of his eyes.

He _had_ heard it all before. Usually from the Asgard. He spent a split second mourning their demise before he turned hard eyes on this alien woman.

Realization dawned in his overwhelmed mind. "You don't know how to use this stuff."

The woman inclined her head and he was momentarily surprised at the easy admission. "We do not have the gene carried by the Creators."

"And that's why you need me."

"All that remains of our race resides on our ships and we are dying. We have no other ancient power source that could sustain our lives." There was a sad look on her face that made even Jack's hardened heart melt – a tiny sliver. "We need you to send us back in time to – the Icarus of the past where we may live out our lives."

"Back in time?" Jack spluttered. "Even if I knew _how_ to do that, there's no way in hell. I've had enough time jumping to last for _two_ lifetimes."

The being's boney finger rose to indicate the puddle jumper. "Within is a time dilation device. You can send us back and then return yourself to this time period."

Jack almost laughed. "Hate to break it to you but just because it all hums to life whenever I come near it, doesn't mean I know how to use it."

Jack's attention was drawn to a black statue with a cylindrical base sitting on the floor a few feet away. Its reddish dome was pristine and Jack squinted at it. He'd seen one before.

"It is a repository of knowledge," the being said. "It contains the history of our alliance."

Jack suppressed the urge to shudder. Daniel's incessant quest for knowledge had almost gotten them all killed the last time they'd come across one of these. "I - may have seen one before."

"Can you read the symbols?"

Jack glanced down and sure enough, there was writing inscribed in long columns all the way around the circumference of the base. He recognized some of it as Ancient, and some of it had those little squigglies he would always recognize as belonging to the Asgard. Jack inhaled sharply and his head whipped around so fast that he knew he'd strained a muscle.

The woman pointed at the column beside the language of the Nox. "Those are written in our tongue."

Jack stared, open-mouthed, at the tall, ethereal being. "You're the Furlings." It wasn't a question. He already knew the answer.

****

"They're just sitting there, Sir," Caldwell's XO said as his hands flew across his console.

"Maybe they've decided not to blow us into tiny bits," Daniel said with a raised eyebrow.

"They took General O'Neill for a reason," Sam said, her eyes glued to the front viewscreen. "Only the Asgard have ever beamed him out of one of our facilities."

"That wasn't an Asgard beam," Caldwell said. He nodded to his helmsman. "Try and get a lock on General O'Neill's transmitter."

"We're being blocked, Sir. I can't even tell what ship he was beamed to."

"Well," Daniel shrugged. "Whoever they are, he hasn't pissed 'em off yet."

Caldwell turned a skeptical eye on Daniel. "Why do you say that?"

"Because we're still here."

"He must have something they want," Sam said absently, her eyes still glued to the largest ship looming big and deadly out the front screen.

"We got no response when I tried to talk to them," Daniel said, coming to stand by Sam's side.

"Why would they bother to answer if Sam's right?" Caldwell commented. "If what they wanted was General O'Neill, then, well, they got him."

Sam barely heard Daniel when he leaned close and softly said, "You need to sit down. You shouldn't be standing on that leg."

"I'm fine." She wasn't concerned with herself right now and Daniel had worked with her long enough to know that.

Blessedly, Daniel left her alone after that and moved back to his own console to continue working on a way to translate that language being piped in through the comm.

She hobbled over to a console and the chair was vacated immediately. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, wondering how she was ever going to concentrate on getting them out of this when she was barely conscious herself.

She was exhausted, sore and it was time for more pain medication.

But she wasn't going to abandon Jack and the rest of this crew if there was something in her head that could help them. She could work through the pain. She'd done it before.

She scrubbed a hand over her face and through her hair determined to find a solution before the aliens decided to make off with their prize.

****

_Jack snuggled closer and wrapped his arms around the slumbering woman in front of him. He inhaled deeply, grinned when she moaned in response and dropped a kiss to the back of her neck. When she snuggled closer, he slid a hand up her smooth stomach and cupped her breast._

_It didn't take long for him to fall back to sleep, but when he did, instead of dreaming about spending the day in bed with Samantha Carter and engaging in all kinds of formerly forbidden very dirty activities, he was standing in a large green field._

_Jack frowned in his dream and pulled Sam closer. In sleepy answer, she draped her ankle back over his calf and settled her backside against his very exhausted groin._

_She was there with him. In his dream. So were Daniel and Teal'c but Jack _so_ didn't want to dream about them right now. Sam smiled at the large clearing, full of trees and grass and – little furry creatures that stood only as high as his waist. To Jack, they looked like Wookies that had been cut off at the knees. Except with bigger heads. And shorter legs. He shook his dream head in resignation. He'd been spending far too much time around Teal'c and his Star Wars obsession._

_Jack pulled Sam impossibly closer and moaned into her neck but the dream wouldn't fade. One of the creatures took his hand and then took Sam's. It led them toward thatched homes with a dome roof that couldn't possibly belong to a race technologically sophisticated enough to be allies of the Ancients._

_Jack groaned and squeezed the smooth little nipple beneath his hand. In his sleep, he gently rolled and tugged until it hardened between his fingers._

"_This is so not what I want to be thinking about right now," Jack muttered as his dream self walked toward the domed dwelling._

"_Jack?" came the sleepy response from the woman lying in his arms._

_Jack mumbled something incoherent and his eyes snapped open when Sam rolled over and sent him a quizzical look._

"_Bad dream?" she asked, her fingers resting lightly on his bare chest._

_Jack pushed a hand through his hair and chuckled. "I'll say."_

_He buried his face in her neck and began to drown out the uncomfortable memories by kissing the soft skin beneath his lips. "Martin Lloyd's movie is going to haunt my dreams for decades."_

_He could feel her chuckle and tighten her arms around his neck. "Which one? The unfilmed one or the television series?"_

_Jack groaned. He'd forgotten all about the series. "Both!"_

Jack blinked rapidly and pulled himself out of the memory. The being's round face came into view as she bent down to eye level and smiled at him.

"Yes, in your tongue, that is how we are called. I am pleased that you have heard of us."

Jack shook his head, a small smile spreading across his face. "You aren't anything like we pictured." He looked her up and down, his eyes twinkling. "Less . . . fur . . . for one thing and . . . taller. Much. Much taller."

****

"Who the hell could they be?" Caldwell asked no one in particular. "And why are they just sitting there. They could easily destroy us."

Daniel looked up from his console. "That's a comforting thought."

Caldwell moved closer. "Find anything?"

Daniel frowned. "Nothing."

"We've got a lot of artifacts stored at Groom Lake," Sam said as she joined Daniel at his console. "It'll take a while to go through them all."

"So far I haven't found anything even remotely like the design of the primary ship." Daniel said as he moved over and let Sam take a seat.

"What about the smaller ones?" Caldwell asked.

Daniel shrugged. "Well, they in part look Ancient in design with a bit of Asgard thrown into the mix."

"Scavengers?" Caldwell asked with raised eyebrows.

Sam shook her head. "I don't think so. I've been going over the personnel manifest for the _Daedalus_ and the _Hammond_. No one on either ship had the ancient gene."

"You think that's why General O'Neill was taken?" Caldwell asked, glancing out the viewscreen at the unmoving ship.

"It's the only logical explanation."

"Our enemies rarely use logic when engaging us," Caldwell muttered.

Sam glanced out the viewscreen and sighed. "Well they wanted him for something and we have no way to get him back."

Caldwell scowled. "That's just not acceptable."

Sam continued to scan through the artifacts stored at Groom Lake. "Their energy signature is unique, though. It doesn't resemble the Asgard or the Ancient technology we've encountered."

"So this is an entirely new race that has lived this close to Earth for – how long and we've never come into contact with them?"

Caldwell was frustrated and Sam couldn't blame him. At least his fiancée hadn't been beamed off his ship without consent.

"Nope, only his boss," Sam whispered to herself.

"What was that?" Caldwell asked as Daniel raised an eyebrow at her.

"Nothing," Sam said as the console in front of her began to beep.

"What'd you find?" Caldwell leaned closer, into her personal space and Sam found it disconcerting.

"Well, the design is similar and the trade signatures from the artifact seem to match." Sam's eyes scanned quickly through the documentation.

When she heard Daniel's sharp intake of breath, she squinted at him.

"Do you know where this was found?" Daniel asked.

Sam raised an eyebrow and pointed at the screen. "It says right here." She glanced at the date and then turned her complete attention to Daniel. "You were dead at the time."

Daniel shrugged. "Doesn't mean I wasn't – around." He jabbed excitedly at the screen. "Mayborne took the only artifact with him through the portal but the trace signatures from the power source left behind once he activated it match."

Sam swallowed deeply. She remembered that temple all too well. She'd been taken by surprise and allowed her CO to enter into an unknown situation without backup – and he'd almost died as a result.

_By the time she'd managed to get back from the briefing, he was all settled and relatively, as much as O'Neill trapped in the infirmary could be, comfortable._

"_Took ya long enough," he quipped with a lopsided grin that did regulation breaking things to her insides._

"_I'm sorry it took us so long, Sir," Sam said as she came to sit at his side._

"_I was joking, Carter." He swung his legs over the bed and was rewarded with a glare from an approaching Janet._

"_You're confined to the infirmary until morning, Colonel," Janet said firmly. "No arguments or I could arrange for a longer stay." She pushed something into his IV and Sam had knew that he wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon _

"_Yeah yeah, I've heard all the threats by now," he groused._

_When Janet turned to her, Sam glanced up, careful to wipe the amused grin off her face before the Colonel noticed it. ""He'll stay. Or I'll call in the big needle."_

"_Oh, I know he will." Satisfied, Janet left Sam to the patient._

"_Too bad Dad couldn't stay," Jack said as he shifted into a more comfortable position. _

"_Yeah. He had an important op to get back to."_

"_Well, thank him for me, will ya?" His eyes began to droop furthering Sam's assumption that Janet had spiked his IV._

"_I will."_

_He began to relax and Sam was about to settle back in the chair when his hand stretched out and covered hers. When their eyes met, words weren't needed. She knew he was happy to be home and grateful to everyone who'd had a hand in the rescue._

_She squeezed his hand in return and when she glanced around the room, there was no one around. She leaned forward into his personal space and smiled warmly at him._

"_Welcome home, Sir."_

"_Yeah," he whispered, voice thick with an emotion Sam couldn't afford to try and identify. "It's good to be back."_

_His eyes fluttered closed and Sam simply sat there with him, hand covering his. She watched his face relax into medically induced sleep, grateful that yet again they had escaped a situation that she knew would only end in heartbreak._

_TBC_

_

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_

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	12. Chapter 11

**Notes:** Finally done! There will be an epilogue and some additional notes that I'll post tomorrow - or tonight depending on how generous I'm feeling:)

**

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****Chapter 11**

"Will you help us?" The being asked. The silky mist-like material of her clothing echoed like a breathy kiss on the smoothly polished floor.

"And if I don't?" Jack challenged.

"We had hoped you would agree."

Jack glanced skeptically to his right. "I doubt your whole race can fit into that puddle jumper."

"We have modified the device so that it will encompass any ship within a certain radius."

_Damn_.

Jack shook his head. "I can't. I'm sorry."

The pear-shaped eyes lowered sadly and then focused intently on him. "And if we deem your vessel hostile in return for your unwillingness to cooperate?"

Jack's fingers tightened into fists at his side and his eyes narrowed into tiny little slits. "If you destroy that ship, there is no torture you can put me through that will get me to help you."

The being studied Jack for a moment and he glared right back at her. He was done with the games and with the talking. He wouldn't be manipulated or threatened to send them back in time. Carter would kill him – or he'd mess something up in the past and there wouldn't be a Carter to come home _to_. Jack shuddered at the thought.

The being's head tilted up and Jack had a feeling that she was communicating telepathically with her people. "I sense you speak the truth."

"Damn right."

"Will you not help us?"

Jack wondered, not for the first time, if this being could read _his_ mind. "Send me back to my ship and let me see if they can come up with something."

"None of them have the gene. They cannot use the tools of the Creators."

"Maybe not. But there are people on that ship way smarter than I am. And you want 'em working on a way to help you instead of working on a way to get me back."

The being seemed to consider his request for a moment. Her eyes lifted and she nodded in a creepily peaceful Teal'c-like gesture.

A light enveloped him and he suddenly found himself on the bridge of the _Daedalus_.

****

Sam glanced up the moment she heard Daniel's voice.

"Jack!"

Sam spun out of her chair so quickly that she had trouble standing upright. The pain in her leg and chest hindered her movement but soon she was standing in front of him – or, at the very least, a very life-like hologram.

"General, what's your status?" Caldwell asked instantly, all business.

"Oh – fine." The transparent image of Jack glanced around and down at himself. "I hate these things."

"That's an Asgard communication beam," Sam said, eyes scrutinizing her fiancé for any harm that might have come to him. "Did you-"

"Nope," Jack shrugged. "Furling."

"The Furlings?" Daniel's eyes widened imperceptibly until Sam thought they would pop out of his skull. "I was right! Jack, this is incredible! Have you talked with them? Can you-"

"Hold on Danny-boy." Jack held up his hands to get the man to stop talking and turned his eyes on Sam. "They need our help."

"Help?" Caldwell asked incredulously. "After they destroyed one of our ships and attacked another?"

"We destroyed their whole planet, according to them."

"Icarus," Sam whispered.

"Yeah, apparently they needed the power generated by the planet's core to live."

Sam nodded and finished his thought. "And now that it's gone, they're dying out here in the coldness of space."

"But they have to know we didn't destroy Icarus," Daniel started again but Jack raised a transparent arm to silence him.

"Daniel, Daniel. You know how these _higher_ beings are. All judgmental about our use of things we don't completely understand."

"So all they need is a power source compatible with that available on Icarus?" Sam asked, stepping forward to make sure Daniel couldn't interrupt.

"Yep. Seems so. They wanted me to send 'em back in time."

A rejection of that idea made its way to the tip of Sam's tongue before she realized he wasn't done.

"Got a kinda Ancient museum over here. You and Daniel would be in doohickie heaven."

Sam couldn't help but smile but her mind was already focusing on a solution to the Furling's problem. "Maybe we could work with their engineers to find them a new planet?"

"They seem insistent that Icarus was the only place."

"Can we speak to them?" Sam asked and watched as Jack whirled around and stared at the bulkhead. She knew he was looking at someone in the room with him and when he turned back to them, he was frowning.

"They won't talk with anyone but me."

"That will be counterproductive to us finding a solution," Sam said, frustrated. The painkillers had worn off and she was finding herself on the verge of snapping at – someone.

She watched as Jack turned his back on them and started speaking with the wall again. She rubbed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to clear her head. After a moment, she had the inklings of a solution.

"Steven," Sam said as she leaned over a console and began tapping its keys.

"What is it, Sam?"

"The planet where you found us, did it have a high EM field?"

"Yeah, we had to re-calibrate the sensors to get a lock and then pray when we beamed you up you wouldn't materialize with someone else's head," Caldwell said with a wince.

"I think that field might have been masking a larger power source hidden somewhere on the planet but we never found it." Sam's eyes scanned text scrolling across the console.

"What makes you think that?"

"Once I figured out how to dial the gate down there, we had no trouble dialing out – and maintaining the connection."

When no one had a comment, Sam continued.

"It had to have been drawing power from another source. I didn't give it any additional power and it wasn't connected to a DHD of any kind."

"The planet?" Daniel asked eyes wide. "Naturally?"

"I don't know. It might be possible. The EM field made it difficult for our instruments to accurately measure, well, anything," Sam said, feeling more confident with each tap of her fingers.

They were interrupted when the transparent form of Jack turned back to them. "They aren't budging here, folks."

"I think may I have a solution," Sam said and grinned at the shocked look on Jack's face.

"That's a record, Carter," Jack lifted his arm to dramatically check his watch. "What was that, a solution in under a minute?"

"I'm not sure if it's viable yet. But we're going to transmit a set of coordinates that I'm hoping you can get them to follow." Sam said as she finished typing.

Sam knew from the look on Jack's face that he was probably a little afraid that if they jumped into hyperspace, he'd never see them again. "We'll be there," she said, eyes locking with his to make it clear she would never abandon him.

Jack looked around and nodded pretty quickly. "They understood and are prepared to -"

A few of the ships blinked into hyperspace immediately and Sam felt her heart lurch into her throat when the last ship vanished, taking the hologram of Jack with it.

"Let's go, folks. Prepare to jump," Caldwell ordered immediately.

"Ready, sir."

He raised his hand. "Go."

****

A disoriented Jack stood in the middle of what looked like an observation deck, staring down at the planet below. The large, round globe looked white and dusty and he was reminded of the condition of the _Hammond's_ crew when they'd been beamed up from its surface.

"Doesn't look habitable," Jack muttered as the tall being came to stand by his side.

"The surface is not," the being said. "And it is covered with all manner of despicable creatures."

Jack frowned. "Right." The ones that had attacked Sam and her crew. He couldn't imagine sharing living space with them.

"But beneath the shifting sands, there may be a power source sufficient enough for our needs."

"Really?" Jack didn't know why he should be surprised. Sam was rarely wrong.

"This was once a world teeming with life," the being said and Jack blinked when a transparent viewscreen folded down into existence in front of his eyes. The screen showed a planet much like Earth but with far less land mass.

"This was a water planet?"

"Yes." The being's long finger rose and hovered reverently over a large blue point. "It has been a long time since we've seen the world of our origin."

Jack stared at the being and then at the planet. "You don't look like an amphibious race."

"We are not. Since the dawn of our people, we have not lived on the surface of our world. The species native to the worlds we have inhabited have never been disturbed."

"Huh."

"The knowledge of its existence in the stars was lost when our alliance with the Creators was broken."

"Yeah, about that-" Jack was curious and more than a little concerned as to just why their alliance had ended when the Asgard and Nox remained.

Large eyes blinked slowly at him. "In time." He resolved that it was the only answer he was going to get for now.

The being pointed to the planet's only land mass. "All that is left are old tales of a beautiful world decimated by pollution and war. Over a millennia, the oceans became the sand dunes present on the surface today."

Jack pointed toward the planet. "Pollution and war did this?" He craned his neck but didn't get too close to the balcony's edge.

The beings voice was sad. "Yes."

"Whoa." Jack didn't want to think too hard about the comparisons one could easily make with Earth. There were people far smarter than him that were sure to do that.

"This world is completely unrecognizable to what little remains of the history of our origin."

"Then how do you know . . ."

"The energy signature of the portal made for us by the Creators."

"The - Stargate?" Jack squinted. Sam had mentioned that they'd had to dig a stargate out of a stone cavern and that it had been of mysterious design.

"Yes, the interference emanating from the planet is great and the signal is very faint."

"If Sam and her team hadn't dug it out of the rock, you'd never have been able to detect it," Jack quickly deduced. No wonder these people had never discovered this place.

"Yes."

Jack didn't want to think too hard about events happening for a reason.

"We provided the means by which to manufacture the element used in the portal's construction and the Creators fashioned one for us in our own design. That your people were able to discover how it worked is a credit to your race."

"So this treaty my people are going to want to make with yours. . ." Jack began, because he just knew it would be the first question Daniel asked.

The being tilted her head forward. "It is something we will consider."

Jack opened his mouth to speak but found his body enveloped by a familiar white light.

****

"They haven't moved, huh?" Daniel asked, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other.

"Not since the last time you asked," Sam said a bit too sharply, but she was sore and she really wanted Jack back. "No."

A blinding light flooded the bridge and Sam's hands flexed over the console. No sooner than the light appeared did it vanish, leaving a smiling Jack standing in the center of the bridge.

Caldwell was out of his seat and beside Jack in an instant. "General!"

Sam followed quickly, itching to pull him into her arms and not let go, but they had rules to follow just like every other officer. They would have to keep the reunion low-key until they got home.

"What happened?" Daniel asked.

Sam felt Jack's eyes shift to her. "You did it again."

"Did what?" Sam and Daniel asked at once.

Jack pointed back out toward the viewscreen. "That's their long lost homeworld or something."

Sam's eyes widened, she was sure to the size of saucers. "You're kidding?"

"Really?" Daniel was more believing but Sam knew he just wanted a chance to talk to these beings they'd heard so much about over the years but never met.

Sam watched as Jack reached out and slid a gentle hand around her arm. "And I'll be happy to explain all of it as soon as I get Carter back to the infirmary."

Sam began to protest but Jack raised a finger. "No sleepy, no story."

Sam scowled at him but acquiesced simply to keep herself from killing an irritatingly cheerful Daniel as he asked question after question about the Furlings.

****

_Jack grinned stupidly at her back as she lay curled in his arms. When he leaned closer, he noticed the irritatingly endearing freckles dotting her shoulder. With one finger he began to trace them as he leaned closer to press a lingering kiss to her neck._

_She stretched in response, her long limbs sliding along his and sending tingles of anticipation straight through his body._

"_How can you even move?" Sam whispered when his lips covered the pulse point and began to tug ever so gently._

"_Hmm?" he mumbled around a mouthful of smooth Carter skin._

_She arched her neck to stare sleepily at him. He'd put that look on her face and it was tough to hide the smug grin of satisfaction at the thought._

_He was more than pleased when she shifted in his arms, draped a smooth, bare leg over his and let his lips slide to her mouth._

"_Wipe that smug look off your face," she said with a snort of feigned annoyance._

"_Sorry, what?" Jack grinned as his exhausted body struggled to respond to the pressure of soft Carter flesh pressed so intimately against him._

_Sam chuckled and dropped her forehead to his shoulder._

"_You don't really expect any deep, rational thought here, do you?" Jack drawled as his restless hands continued to explore the bare skin of her back – and lower._

"_Right now, I couldn't think of the square root of -," She gasped when his fingers slipped through oversensitive folds. Her moan was muffled as she wrapped her mouth around his collarbone and sucked deeply._

_Jack's fingers slid deeper as his body rapidly climbed out of that pleasantly sated state and into delighted arousal. His fantasies really had absolutely nothing over the real thing. And if he'd known all those years ago -_

_Her mouth suddenly popped away from his neck and she rolled onto her back, leaving him bereft of her warm, naked skin. He blinked dazedly at her until she pulled him closer and her long legs parted to so that he could settle his hips between them._

_He didn't waste the invitation and slowly leaned down to fit his body to hers. When she moaned and crossed her legs tightly around his back, he leaned forward and whispered, "We should have done this a long, long time ago."_

_Her breathless chuckle was hot against his neck when she answered. "Yes, well, let's not dwell."_

Jack groaned into his arms, currently crossed and balanced on the edge of Sam's bed. His voice was muffled when he asked, "Is he finally gone?"

"Yes," Sam said, amusement tingeing her voice.

Jack lifted his head and squinted at her. "He just interrupted one hell of a nice dream."

Sam reached out and pushed her fingers through his hair as he sat up.

"What the hell did he want at. . . " Jack glanced at his watch and rolled his eyes, "God, is that the time? Jesus. Where's my gun, I should shoot him."

Sam's hand ghosted over his where it still rested on the bed. "He was just excited about his how well his talks with the Furling governing body were going and wanted to tell me about it."

Jack groaned. Blessedly he'd slept through most of it. The only geek speak he enjoyed nowadays was Sam's. "He couldn't _share_ a bit later than 0500?"

Sam laid her head back and closed her eyes. "He's gone now."

"And I'm awake now," Jack groused and he knew Sam didn't have the energy to placate his suddenly grumpy disposition. "I suppose I could go call Hayes and give him an update."

"I'll be here," Sam said and squeezed his hand, the only form of affection they would allow themselves to show in public. Though, he knew, just by the look in her eyes that she was itching for more.

"I'll be back," he said as his eyes lingered on her face for a bit longer than was strictly proper.

She settled back into the cushions and closed her eyes. "Bring me some food one your way back. I'm starving."

"Yes, ma'am," Jack said before leaving her to her dreams.

"_You're barbequing?" Sam asked as she walked out onto the deck and stared at his back. She shivered in the damp air and pulled his jacket tighter around her shoulders._

"_One last hurrah before I leave for DC," Jack said as he turned. A piece of charred meat hung from the tongs. Sam shook her head and tried not to smile. He was leaving in the morning for his new assignment and she would be heading back to Area 51 to continue hers._

"_What?" He squinted at her. He was irritatingly cute when he was confused._

"_Nothing," Sam said as she took the tongs out of his hand and placed the charred beef on the platter. _

"_No dinner?"_

_Sam slowly and meticulously raked her eyes from the top of his ruffled, bed head to his feet. "Not right now." They got so very little time together, she really was in the mood to do something other than eat._

_A cocky grin spread across his face and his eyebrows rose suggestively. "Dessert first?"_

"_Maybe," she said as she trailed a finger down his chest and suddenly found herself enveloped in very long, very strong arms._

_The moment she lifted her head, his warm, demanding mouth descended and she found herself unable to think. _

_When they parted, she grinned smugly at the way his eyes glazed, at the way he clung to her as tightly as she to him. She took his hand and led him into the house, determined to make the most of their remaining hours together. _

_END_

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	13. Epilogue

I decided I didn't really like leaving the last chapter as the 'end' for the day. So, instead, I've posted the Epilogue a day early. Enjoy.

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**EPILOGUE**

Sam took a moment to observe the man sitting behind the antiqued wooden desk as she raised her hand to knock on the door. The window afforded her a nice view and she grinned when he looked up and waved her in before her fingers struck the frame.

"All done?" Jack asked, ignoring the paperwork sitting in neat and orderly piles on his desk.

"For the next two weeks, I am," Sam said, eyes twinkling with excitement. She eyed the paperwork and then sat slowly down in the chair opposite him. Her wounds were healing nicely but there were still twinges of discomfort now and then.

She rested her fingers atop the thin notebook she carried. "How about you? Free yet?"

Jack glanced at the paperwork sitting in his box and shrugged. "I can leave whenever you're ready." He shot her a smug look that she knew she shouldn't even remotely consider cute. "Perks of bein' the boss, you know."

Sam shook her head and grinned when he pushed his open laptop aside and gave her his full attention.

"So, how was the review?"

Sam leaned back and crossed her legs, making sure he could see enough skin peek out from under the hem of her skirt. Maybe he wouldn't ask her inane questions she could just as easily answer at home, in bed, if he got a peek of just what exactly he was missing.

Much to her disappointment, he was actually looking at her face and waiting for an answer.

"They already have a new ship on the assembly line and want me to take command when she's done."

Jack cocked his head. "Really?"

"But I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know."

Jack shrugged. "Well, I _am_ the man. Just because you don't report to me anymore doesn't mean I don't know _exactly_ what you'll be doing for the foreseeable future."

Sam grinned teasingly at him and twisted the ring around her finger. She wasn't used to wearing it anywhere else but her dogtags. It was a welcome change, albeit a new one.

"_You think life will slow down enough for us to actually do it?" Sam said while he was sitting beside her bed in the infirmary, laptop propped on his legs. He insisted he could work from her bedside at Bathesda but she knew he hadn't so much as sent an e-mail. A bridal magazine thoughtfully dropped off by a concerned Vala sat on her lap but she hadn't read more than a few pages of it._

_He stopped reading the screen and looked up. "Provided we don't have a new enemy beating down our little corner of the galaxy in the next two weeks, we'd better do it or something else will get in the way."_

"_Well, my two week leave starts after the debrief," Sam said as she slipped the ring off her dogtags and held it out to him._

_He stared at her for a long moment before leaning slowly forward to take the diamond. "Are you sure?" He tilted it for a moment, letting the light reflect off the stone. _

_After a moment, she impatiently held out her left hand. "You done?"_

_She felt a tremor race down her spine when his eyes focused on her, all tender and serious and oh-so spine-tingling. "Not by a long shot," he whispered as he slipped the band onto her finger._

"_Think you can spring me?" Sam asked with pleading eyes and more than a little heat in her voice._

"I tried to get 'em to name it the _H2_ but was vetoed," Jack said as he glanced over his left shoulder at one of the photos on the credenza behind him. It was a very early shot of General Hammond standing with them after he'd presented them with the Air Medal in the early days of SG-1.

Sam smiled sadly. "I heard."

"They went with the more cliché name," Jack muttered as he looked back at her.

Sam rolled her eyes. "The _Phoenix_ _was_ the original name of the _Hammond_, Jack."

Jack waved his hand dismissively and shrugged. "I know. It's that whole rising out of the ashes thing that doesn't sit well with me. Especially now."

Sam reached out to get a better look at his laptop monitor.

"Who's winning?" she asked with a knowing grin.

He puffed out his chest and answered proudly, "Not you for a change."

She huffed a short little chuckle and unfolded her crossed legs when he stood.

"Let's get out of here." He clicked the laptop shut and walked around the desk. Sam fell into step beside him as they left the office.

"I'm sure the bean counters wouldn't be very happy with you if they found out you were using their multi-billion dollar satellites to play Intergalactic Chess with your fiancé."

Jack reached out to open the door and paused, glancing back at her with a slightly disconcerting grin. "That's why I'm marrying one of the few people in the galaxy that can hack into those satellites so they can't track it."

Sam laughed, her eyes dancing as she shook her head. No one manning the control room paid them any mind as they made their way out of the office and through the long, winding hallways of the Pentagon.

They had a wedding, and a more important honeymoon, to plan. Daniel and the ever important bean counters could deal with the galaxy and its problems for the next two weeks.

END

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Thanks for following along and let me know what you liked, or didn't, about the story as a whole or just pieces of it.


	14. Author's Notes

**Author's Notes**

First, I want to thank my beta PolRobin for the time she dedicated to betaing this monstrosity of a story. And second, everyone who has followed along for the last two weeks as I posted. It was a fun little adventure to write and hopefully a believable in-character one to read.

I wanted to use this space to essentially give a bit of background on why I did what I did with certain parts of the story. I'll start with the one thing a lot of people commented on; the _Flashbacks_.

I wanted to use them as a way to touch on various aspects of Sam and Jack's relationship – most of which we didn't get to see in the show at all. Though I do believe we're going to see something romantic in the third SG-1 movie.

I didn't expect, though I probably should have, that the baby discussion would spark questions of if Sam would end up pregnant by the end, or middle, of the story. I've never been a fan of writing (if written well, I'll enjoy it but that's rare) 'oops' stories if they don't fit in the established characterization for the players involved. Sam and Jack just wouldn't have an oops this far into a relationship.

But I did and do think they would have had a discussion of some sorts about it and the flashback was my way of working it in. That they waited too long to get together and it was too late now was the impression I intended to leave with the reader.

People didn't wonder much about the different design of the gate on the planet which surprised me a bit. Originally, I'd intended it to look like the gate on SGU's _Destiny_ and have them find a buried crate of PSP's (because that's seriously what they look like!) with which to dial it.

There was a two fold reason why I didn't. First, well, I saw the premier a month in advance and didn't really want to insert too many spoilers from the show nor did I want to make it _that_ easy for them to get off the planet and two, my beta inadvertently gave me a different idea and I ran with it. :)

I'm not a fan of 'weak damsel in distress' stories, (and lets face it, Sam is not some weak damsel) and wanted Sam to be able to figure it out and get some of her team home before Jack, in the end, had to rescue her. The use of this gate allowed me to do that, hopefully, in a believable way.

The one thing I did end up changing (as I started this story about 4 months ago) is that I originally used the Lucian Alliance as the baddies that not only attacked Icarus base, but also the _Hammond_. I changed that after I saw the premier because when the planet explodes, it looks like it takes out all the LA ships with it. That, and my beta had inadvertently given me another, I felt better idea, just lent itself to the change. I hope it worked.

I do feel like the end is a bit of a cop-out. I'm not sure why. But I wanted to use the Furlings in a way that no one would expect – though stories with them appearing have been done to death.

As a viewer I quite dislike the episode _200 _(too much unbelievable fantasy for me), though as a writer I simply adore all the quips and behind the scenes things they managed to work into the episode.

So I had a tough time justifying my use of them in the story here. I wanted the race that attacked the _Hammond_ to be one we'd never seen before (after I decided that I wasn't going to use the Lucian Alliance) but one that had been mentioned and heard of. And since I don't consider the look and design of the Furlings to be anything like we see in the episode _200_, I ended up using them. I did pay a sort of homage to that episode in a flashback. I'm not sure how well it worked.

Hopefully, I portrayed a believable relationship between Sam and Jack in the story. In their private lives, I think they would be playful and passionate but in a work environment, even if they were married with rings super glued to their fingers, they wouldn't let their professional demeanor slip. I tried to explain that though I'm sure some readers would have preferred to see them to kiss and make out right there in the infirmary. It's just not something I believe would ever happen and as its important to me to keep as close to a character's established behavior as possible, that would have just been, to me, out of believable character for them.

I'll end on a funny little anecdote. When my beta and I got together a few weeks ago to watch the SGU premier, she turned to me and said 'I keep expecting the _Hammond_ to blow up." She'd been spending a lot of time reading this 120 page story. I'm very glad that it didn't, because I expect one heck of a big CANON resolution to Sam and Jack's relationship in the third SG-1 movie.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I appreciate and welcome comments, even if they're critiques.


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